


DigiLife

by zeofficialrave



Category: Digimon Adventure
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Taichi turns into a digimon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-15
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-12 21:01:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 35,974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28766748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zeofficialrave/pseuds/zeofficialrave
Summary: After waking up from a nightmare, Taichi finds himself in the middle of the forest in a unfamilliar form.(Episodes rewriten starting at The Small Devil, Picodevimon.)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 19





	1. Find The Missing Children

**Author's Note:**

> Koromon, the Great Clash in Tokyo is skipped meaning that it didn't happen in this story. That will be improvised in some chapters.

_It was dark._

_That was all there is in whatever world he's stepping upon._

_Taichi looked around to check where he is or maybe find a way out, but there is only darkness surrounding him, nothing more._

_The boy felt his dry throat as he tries to speak but no words nor any noises came out of his mouth._

_Feeling confuse, he checked his surroundings again. 'Where am I?' He thought. 'Where's everyone?'_

_Taichi sighed and decided to walk around the dark abyss. The least he can do at the moment anyway. As he kept walking in the neverending darkness, he realized that he wasn't moving anywhere, or so that's what it felt like. It was hard to tell. Eventually, he stopped, noticing that he wasn't going anywhere._

_DRIP!_

_Taichi spun around and saw something dripping on the cold ground._

_DRIP!_

_It It was...water? Why is there water in here?_

_DRIP!_

_He carefully approached the small pond and examined it for any danger, yet he found nothing._

_Suddenly, more of those ponds appeared and it abruptly turned into a giant waterfall, quickly filling up the room._

_Taichi gasp as he swam up to the surface to get some air but everytime he does it the water waves just keeps pushing his body down the bottomless ocean. Just as he was about to lose consciousness from exhaustion, he saw something in the water._

_It grabbed his limp body and gave him an unexpected shock, causing him to scream yet no sounds came out._

_'Child of Courage...' A deep voice said._

_A giant screen appeared right in front of him, and what it was showing terrified him. It was their own world, but with digimons destroying everything in plain sight. What's worse is that no one seems to notice anything unusual happening right before them. He saw the sky glitching and turning dim, then the screen suddenly disappears._

_Taichi felt it let go of his body and let it sink down the dark water. Without any warning, he suddenly felt a huge pain in his body. Taichi tensed and tried screaming out of his lungs, still silent._

_The boy hugged himself to try and soothe the burning pain, but it just keeps getting worse every second. Taichi gasps and shot his eyes open. What he saw terrified him._

_There were black claws emerging out of his fingers, causing his white gloves to shred apart as it continue to grow and completely replace his harmless nails. The pain didn't stop there however as his ears and legs simultaneously changed shape._

_Taichi flail around and did everything he could to comfort himself. He wanted it to end! It was unbearable!_

_A silent scream came out of his mouth when another round of torment bursts out of his spine and shoulder blades. Taichi didn't know what's happening. He was too focused on the burning pain coursing through his entire body. He couldn't think straight._

_Taichi wanted to cry but couldn't. Something in his mind told him not to, he didn't know why yet he obeyed it._

_Taichi groaned in discomfort as his lower jaw started to hurt. There was something growing in it but he didn't know why. It was sharp and eventually got bigger that caused it to stick out of his mouth when he try and close it._

_Then, he felt something, no...someone. There was someone in here with him. It's presence alone in this dark world made him shiver down his bones. He felt cold and weak. Taichi wanted to close his eyes and wished for this nightmare to end, yet some part of him wants to stay awake._

_A loud cracking sound echoed as Taichi groaned and bit his lip to prevent himself from crying out again. He couldn't understand what was happening anymore._

_'It is done...' The voice said in a cold tone._

_The unbearable pain and torment bursts out even more, causing Taichi to grit his teeth and silently sob. Finally, he snapped his eyes open, revealing his feiry orange cat like eyes. He threw his head back and let out the scream that was building up in his throat, but instead of a horrific human scream, an inhuman roar escaped his pained mouth._

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

A loud groan escaped the boy's lips as he slowly crack his eyes open, only to close it again when the ray of sunlight blinded his vision. Using his hand to block the light, he carefully sat up then opened his eyes, in which suddenly widen in shock and surprise when he found himself sitting in the middle of the forest. 

The first thing that he thought of was MetalGreymon and Etemon's fight. Last thing he remember was getting sucked into, what seems to be, a black hole with Etemon. He could remember hearing the others screaming his name before blacking out. He must've got teleported somwhere in the island, luckily he's slowly regaining familiarity with the place. They probably walked pass this forest days ago. Sighing, Taichi tried to stand up but failed and fell on his bottom as he yelp.

Taichi hissed in pain. Before he could even make any movement, his eyes widen when he saw his feet ---no not feet...paws!

"What is this!?" He chuckled nervously, not believing what he's seeing. 

As he stretched his hand to touch his...paws, a loud gasp escaped his mouth after seeing his hand. His usual human five digit fingers were now reduced to four for both of his hands with sharp black claws sticking out of each fingers. He also notice the fur on his hand --no...entire body! He was covered in brown fur! 

Taichi's attention turned when he felt something moving behind him. After seeing what it was, he couldn't help but stare at it in both terror and confusion. Behind him is a tail swaying back and forth. He tried to grab and pulling it but stopped when pain rushed in his bottom. 

"N-no...there's no way...!" He needs to get a better look of himself! Seeing a small pond nearby, he quickly made his way towards it, stumbling down multiple times in the process. Tai stared down in his reflection and couldn't believe his eyes. 

Instead of seeing his human body, what he saw was a digimon! Brown fur covering his entire body, a pointy darker shade of brown ears while it's insides are mute orange. His hair seems to be normal other than the long sideburns on the side of his face, looking almost like a beard or lion's mane with his hair. His clothes were replaced by a black pants and two arm braces with two stripes of yellow of each end. Both of his hands and feet were a lighter color than his normal body fur, he also notice his forearms were slightly bigger than it normally is. Finally, he examined his tail, it was long and fluffy on it's end with a fading orange on the tip. 

"How did this happen? Was that dream..." He asks no one but himself, still shock from the sight in front of him. Taichi continues to stare at his relfection for a few minutes, finally noticing the color of his eyes changed into feiry orange, large sharp fangs sticking out of his jaw and his nose changed into what looks like a cat's nose. 

The only thing that stayed with him was his goggles on his head and his tag and crest. He felt a small relief when he saw his digivice on the belt of his pants. Well that's one less thing to worry about.

"Am I...a digimon?" He asks no one in particular. A flash of memory of that dream he had in the darkness, him screaming silently and feeling that unbearable pain in his entire body. Taichi hummed, perplexed. "It's probably better to worry about later. I need to find the others!" 

It took him a couple of tries to stand up with his new legs and feet. It was like standing on his toes for him. After a while, he managed to adjust himself and took a few steps. A small smile crept his lips as his slow walk turned into a huge leap onto one of the tree branches. 

"This...doesn't seem too bad." He muttered as he jumped down and landed on fours. Then he ran deep into the forest, following the familiar road he once took when they were trying to find Etemon. 

As he ran pass the area, he turned his head left and right to scout around. His ears flickering at the sounds in the distance, nose twitching at the unfamiliar smell going in his nostrils. He could recognize some of the scents around the forest but it wasn't exactly who he is looking for so he just kept running. 

The changed must've enchance his sense of smell and hearing. He can smell and hear things from miles away that he didn't even know that existed in the first place.

Taichi paused. His eyes darted towards the path. A loud beep caught his attention, causing him to flinch and tighten his grip on his ears, but soon calmed down when he notice that it was the digivice that's making the noise. 

Slowly, he released his grip from his ears as he reach down for the beeping device on his belt. He brought it up to his face and saw two red dots on the screen. Both dots has a huge distance at each other.

"Wait...Is it showing me where they are?" He raised a brow in confusion. Checking if his theory is true, he proceeds to run a couple of miles, and to his surprise he was right! The red dots represent both him and the others who holds the digivice. 

But what got him thinking was why there was only a single dot showing on the screen when there's seven of them. Tai didn't know, but he was glad to have a little help from it. 

Taichi noticed that the sounds and smells that was overwhelming him is gone, so he took the opportunity and continue to ran through the thick forest as he keeps track on both the path and the direction in the device. As if on instinct, he started to run on all fours, completely gaining some huge amounts of speed. 

The boy slowed down as he notice something in the distance. He then leaped onto the trees and climbed all the way on top of it to get a better view. 

"Is that a...theme park?" It was too far away for him to see what it exactly is, the only thing that made him guess was the ferris wheel, at least he thought it was. 

Taichi hummed as he pat his pants to get his small binoculars, and to his surprise, it wasn't there. "Must've dropped it after the fight." He groaned in frustration. "Guess it won't hurt to check it out. The others might be there!" Well... he hoped.

Taichi then quickly jumped down and made his way towards the abandoned theme park. On his way, he suddenly heard two voices chattering nearby. At the corner of his eyes, he saw two Gazimons sitting on a pile of mushrooms while laughing at each other. 

"Hey!" The two digimons turned to look at him. "Aren't you Etemon's minions!?" 

The Gazimons looked at each other then back at Tai, wearing a confuse look on their faces. "Who's Etemon?" Asked the digimon with the sunglasses. 

"Huh?" Taichi stared at them, dumbfounded. "Don't play dumb! I know you two worked for him!" 

The other Gazimon just shrugged then turned to look at the other digimon. "Wait, who are you? What am I doing here anyway?"

"Who are you?"

"I don't know either!"

Taichu gritted his teeth in frustration. "STOP PLAYING AROUND!" He shouted as he stomped his foot.

"Calm down!" Gazimon took a small mushroom beside him and offered it to Taichu. "Here, have a mushroom!"

Taichi was having none of it and slapped his hand away. "Seriously!"

The two gazimons just shrugged and scooped a handful of mushrooms as they turned to each other and smiled. "More for us!" They both then ate it whole, not a second later their faces changed to be in a more confused expression than ever. They pointed and each other and ask, "Who are you?"

That's when Taichi realized that neither of them are lying about not knowing who Etemon is. "Better stay out of that mushroom." The boy didn't say another word as he quickly sprinted towards his destination.

His nose suddenly twitch at the familiar smell nearby. Taichi checked his digivice and saw that he was almost near one of his friends' location. As he was running, the device's sound suddenly got louder and louder. Looking at it, he noticed that he is only a couple of meters away from them.

"Alright!" Taichi halt to a stop and stared at the theme park right in front of him. His ears suddenly perked up at the familiar voices. He sniffed the air and caught the familiar scent he smelled back on the forest, this time it was stronger than before. 

He clipped the digivice on his belt and decided to follow his ears and nose for this one. 

"Is this really for me?" 

"Yes! Eat as much as you like, Takeru!"

'Takeru?!' That other voice doesn't belong to any of his friends. It sounded so friendly yet he could hear the malice in its voice. Without wasting any time, he quickly followed Takeru's scent until he finally saw him. "Takeru!" He shouted, startling everyone.

The kid suddenly went wide eye after seeing an unfamiliar digimon approaching him. Tokomon and Agumon then jumped into possition to defend Takeru from they deemed threat. "Stay where you are!" Agumon growled, his throat glowing with flames as a threat.

"A-agumon! Hey, it's me--"

When Takeru saw the digimon's goggles on his head, he immediately recognized who it was. "Taichi!?"

"Huh!?...T-tai...chi?" Agumon relaxed and stared at the tall digimon right in front of him. 

"Jeez! Who else? What did I miss?" Taichi yelp in surprise as he suddenly got engulfed into a huge bear hug by the three. 

"We were looking all over for you!" Agumon cried out. 

"We're so glad you're still alive! You've been gone for almost 2 months! Where did you go, Taichi!? Why are you a digimon?" Tai froze after hearing Takeru's statement. 

"Hang on! I've been gone for two months!?" 

"Yeah!" Takeru looked up to him with teary eyes, sobbing. "Everyone left! Each one of them went their own way and left me!" 

Taichi's face went serious. He knelt down on Takeru's level and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. Before he could say any words, he noticed the mushrooms Tokomon is holding. He quickly snatched it off of the digimon's hand and threw it away. "Don't eat that! It'll wipe away all your memories!"

The three gasp and threw away all the remaining shrooms. 

"See! I told you he was lying to you, Takeru!" Tokomon bared his sharp teeth at the flying digimon.

"How dare you try to wipe our memories away!" Agumon jumped and swipe his sharp claws at the scared digimon and caught him by the wing.

"Tell him you're lying about Yamato! Tell him!" Tokomon demanded. Agumon's grip slowly tightened around his wings. 

"Alright! I did! It was all a lie!" 

Takeru couldn't believe what he was hearing. More tears threatened to spill out of his eyes, his hands clenched into a fist as he gritted his teeth in both anger and frustration. "Picodevimon..."

Agumon yelp as he stumbled down when Picodevimon forcibly shoved him on the ground. He glided a few feet away from them and chuckled. "I guess I should get rid of you now! Pico Darts!"

Tokomon was quick to react at the sudden assault. "Tokomon digivolves to...Patamon!" 

"Air shot!" The syringes flew back towards Picodevimon, who then dodged it in sheer panic. 

Patamon, however, didn't give him any time to recover and headbutted him hard. He fired another air shots at him, causing the enemy digimon to roughly hit the rollercoaster tracks. 

The orange digimon then glided down towards Takeru, who was looking at him in guilt. "Patamon, I'm so sorry for yelling at you! I didn't mean to--"

"It's okay, Takeru!" Patamon said with a genuine smile. "It was Picodevimon's fault, not yours."

A loud yelp coming from Agumon interrupted thei conversation as the dinosaur digimon was thrown pretty far back by Picodevimon. 

"Agumon!" Taichi yelled out and ran towards his friend to check on him but abruptly stopped on his tracks when multiple darts was shot right in front of him. 

"Taichi! Agumon!" Before Patamon could even make a move, Picodevimon tackled him and clutched on the little digimon's body tightly, causing Patamon to scream out in pain.

"Patamon!" Takeru cried out and tried to help his friend, but Picodevimon flew a couple of meters away from him.

The bat digimon laughed. "Not so tough now are you?" 

"Let me go!!!" Patamon squirmed around but stopped when Picodevimon's sharp nails tightened even more.

"Hey!" Picodevimon turned at the source of the voice and saw Taichi yelling at him. 

"What?" The bat digimon smirked slyly. "Like you can even do anything, Chosen Child! Are you even one? It's hard to tell now that you're a digimon!"

Taichi growled menacingly. Then he suddenly felt something in his throat, he didn't know what it was but decided to release it in instinct. "Flare blast!"

He breathe out a giant ball of fire and successfully hit Picodevimon, making him let go of Patamon as he tries to shake off the embers that caught his eyes. 

"Air shot!" 

Picodevimon gasp and tried to evade but was too late as it hit him across the water. 

After the bat digimon faded into distance, Takeru looked at the surprised Taichi in amazement. "You breathed out fire!" 

"I...breathed out fire." Taichi repeated, sounding more shock. "I JUST BREATHED OUT FIRE!" He yelled out frantically, not believing what he had just done.

Taichi looked down on his clawed hands and frowned. 'I...really am a digimon!' 

"Taichi?" 

The boy of courage snapped out of his thoughts and turned to look at Takeru with a serious face. He knelt down on his size and gently place a hand on Takeru's shoulder. "I need you to tell me what happened. Where did the others go? And why isn't Yamato with you?"

Of course, Yamato wouldn't leave his brother all alone, especially when there's a lot of evil digimons running around. Taichi felt more confuse than ever now that he thought of it. 

"W-well..." Takeru sat down on the nearby bench while the others followed his lead then started telling his once human friend the whole story. Taichi listened carefully, not daring to misunderstood any situation.

Takeru told him everything starting from when Taichi disappeared, everyone trying to find him everyday, then they left one by one until it's only Yamato with him, the reason of his brother's disappearance and how Picodevimon tried to decieve him into hating Yamato. 

All that happened in the span of 2 months. Taichi couldn't believe it. Everyone broke apart just to try and find him. Taichi didn't know what to feel. Disappointment? Frustration? Anger? Guilt? He didn't know, but one thing's for sure; they need to regroup.

"Hey, Taichi." Agumon called in a low voice.

"Hm?" 

"How did you exactly turn into a digimon?" 

Taichi frowned as he examined his body, flexing his fingers and opening and closing his palms. "I honestly have no idea. All I know is, I woke up already looking like this in the middle of the forest. Then I tried to find you and here I am."

Takeru noticed the unusual gloomy state of his friend. He grabbed his paws and gently squeezed it, causing Tai's claws to extend. "Koushiro might know what caused your change." He said softly.

Taichi, who was staring at his extending claws in amazement, nodded. "Yeah. We need to find him though. Do you know where he is?" 

"I think he said he's gonna find Gennai for help."

"G-gennai!?" Taichi recieved a single nod from each one of them. He sighed deeply and slides his pawed hand down his face. "Who knows where he could be right now! We don't even know where that old man lives!"

"What do we do now?"

Taichi groaned and let himself slide onto the ground. His gaze turned towards the water. His orange eyes widen when he saw an island in the distance. It wasn't far but it still might take them a couple of hours to arrive there. "Hey, you said Yamato went to check somewhere over there?" He pointed.

Takeru nodded. "Yeah, he hasn't come back yet though."

"Well then..." Taichi stood up and turned to look at the youngster in reassurance. "Let's go look for him!"


	2. Oh Friend! WereGarurumon

"Something's beeping!" 

Taichi stared at the digivice on his belt. "Our friends must be nearby!" He scratched the back of his head sheepishly when he realized something. "Oh yeah! I forgot to tell you, when I met you, Takeru, it started beeping too!"

"So it tracks who has a digivice?" Agumon asked, earning a nod from his partner.

"Will we be able to meet my brother?" Takeru asks Taichi.

"Maybe." He replied, still unsure whether it's really Yamato or the others. Takeru took that as a possitive response and smiled at Patamon.

Meanwhile, inside the diner, both Gomamon and Gabumon are working while wearing such a huge frown on their faces. The job was already too tiring for them, then Yamato and Joe's fight brought in more pressure on their shoulders. 

Gomamon wiped the floor rather slowly, while Gabumon was busy carrying a plate of food for a costumer.

The door opened, but the two didn't bother to look, believing that it's only another customer, in which they were wrong. It was Taichi, Takeru, Agumon and Patamon who decided to show up. 

"Gabumon!" 

The two whip their heads around after hearing the familiar voice, yet their faces turned into a confused one rather than a surprise. 

"Guys it's Taichi!" Agumon told them, earning a gasp from the two.

"T-taichi!?"

"But why are you--"

"I don't know either." Taichi replied.

Takeru ran towards Gabumon and asked, "Gabumon, where's my brother?"

"Is Jou here too?" Taichi asks with a smile on his face.

"Yeah, he's here. But..." Both Gomamon and Gabumon's enlightened face disappeared and was replaced by a frown. 

"But...?" Taichi noticed the gloomy expression the two are wearing, and waits for the answer patiently. 

"I-is that who I think it is!?" 

Everyone turned and saw Jou standing rigid while staring at Taichi. "Yeah, it's me." Taichi waved at him with a smirk. "Long time no see, Jou."

"What happened?" 

"I can't really explain but to put it simply, a lot of stuff happened." Taichi placed a finger on his chin and thought for a moment. "Actually, no. I just woke up looking like this."

"Hey, where's my brother?" Takeru asks Jou, still wearing a hopeful smile on his face. "He's here, isn't he?"

Instead of answering them, Jou frowned and averted his eyes towards the door, where Yamato stormed off. 

"He's outside, right?" Takeru ran out to find his older brother, not bothering to ask Jou anymore questions.

Takeru was too focused on finding his brother that he didn't notice the dull expression on Jou's face. Taichi, however, saw this, and immediately knew that something happened between the two. 

"Jou? What's wrong?" 

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Yamato quietly stared up at the blue sky as he laid down on the grassy ground while both of his arms provided an alternative pillow to cusion his head. 

There was a lot of things troubling him right now, and he didn't want anyone to bother him for anything. 

"Yamato!" 

Speaking of which, Yamato's eyes widen in surprise and gasp as he quickly sat up. "Takeru!?" 

Takeru's smile widen and hugged his brother. "I finally get to see you again!"

"How did you...?"

"I came with Taichi!" 

"Taichi?"

Yamato looked behind him and saw a digimon standing over him. He immediately recognized the messy hair and the goggles of the tall creature. Yamato was shocked yet he was relieved at the same time.

"Yo!" Taichi waved at the surprised Yamato, and already knew what the blonde was gonna say next so he explained it to him before he could even ask. "Don't know what happened either, so don't bother asking how."

"You're alive!" 

Taichi pouts and put his hands on his hips as an exaggeration. "I'm not kicking the bucket before you."

"Oh yeah? Sorry." Yamato paused for a moment, then continued, now sounding slightly happy. "Thanks for taking care of Takeru."

"Don't worry about it!" 

Yamato then turned to look at his younger brother with an apologetic gaze. "I'm sorry, Takeru. I couldn't keep my promise to come get you."

"That's okay! We were able to see each other again." Takeru's smile enlightened Yamato as the older blonde close his eyes and smirk. 

"Anyway, I'm glad you're safe."

"Putting that aside." Taichi cutted in, then Jou also went outside just in time. "It doesn't look like anyone's around, so let's get out of here!"

Yamato, Jou and Gabumon stared at Taichi in disapproval. "You want us to run?" Gabumon asks, sounding more concern about escaping, which made Taichi become more curious about the situation they are in.

"Yeah! Let's hurry up and look for the others together!" Said Taichi as he extended his hand out as a gesture with a huge smile on his face. 

Yamato stared at him for a moment before responding. "I don't want to." He averted his gaze.

"Yamato!" Takeru looked at his brother, perplexed. 

The older blonde lowered his head. "I don't mind running away from here, but I won't go with Jou."

Hearing his name got spat out like venom, Jou gasp and tries to say something, Yamato's next words, however, made him shut his own mouth.

"He'll only drag us down if he stays with us." 

Jou's mouth hanged open, unable to say anything at Yamato after hearing his words. 

"How can you say that!?" Taichi snarled at Yamato, making Joe and the others' gaze turn towards him, his sharp teeth bared dangerously. "We're all friends!" 

Yamato slowly stood up as he clench his hands into a fist. "What do you mean, friends!? You keep dragging everyone around at your own convenience! Thanks to that, I'm all worn out!" 

Taichi was unable to control himself as he let out a low growl in response, which made Yamato go uneasy at the unusual sound Taichi is making, but he quickly shook it off and yelled out. "Just do whatever you want on your own!" Yamato turned his back at him.

"W-what!?" Taichi exclaimed.

"I'm going with Takeru and that's it! Leave us alone!" 

"Brother, what's wrong? We're all friends here." Takeru said as he gently held Yamato's hand. 

"Shut up!" 

Tears threatened to spill out of Takeru's wide eyes as his grip on his brother's hand loosened. 

"You just have to stay quiet and follow me!" 

Jou and Gomamon watched Yamato yell at Takeru by the door. Joe couldn't believe he could do that to Takeru, neither of them did. Everyone knew Yamato to be an overprotective pushover when it comes to Takeru, but yelling at him? Yamato must be ultimately upset.

"Everyone~" Digitamamon came enteriring the scene, causing the argument between them to cease. "You wouldn't be thinking of fleeing from here, are you?" The virus digimon's eyes furrowed menacingly.

"It'll give us trouble if you did that." 

Taichi whip his head around and saw the same bat digimon sitting on the branch of a tree, a smug smile glued on his face.

"H-huh!?"

"That's Picodevimon!" Takeru yelled out.

"He's an evil digimon who tried to trick Takeru!" Agumon exclaimed. A vicious grin etched on Picodevimon's face.

"What!?"

Hearing what Agumon just said about the digimon, both Yamato and Joe let out a gasp as they suddenly remember what Picodevimon had told them.

"Then, when you mentioned there were humans around..." Jou tightened his knuckles as his brows furrowed in frustration. "It was all a lie!"

"Damn it!" Taichi snarled as he bared his sharp canines and claws. "I won't forgive you! Flare Blast!"

"Baby Flame!"

"Air Shot!"

Picodevimon dodged all of their attacks in panic. "Hey, watch it!" He then flew away to get away from them, but Taichu isn't letting him go that easy.

"Wait!" Taichi ran after him on all fours, Agumon and Patamon following him from behind.

(Skip past where WereGarurumon blasted Digitamamon with his own attack)

"N-no way! He beat Digitamamon!" Picodevimon could only watch the battle occur right in fron of him as the perfect level virus digimon struggles to keep his life from the newly evolved Garurumon. Wasting no time, he fleed from the scene.

"He's getting away!" Taichi yelled out.

"Veggiemon! Release Jou now!" Yamato demanded.

"Or do you want to fight me too?" Said WereGarurumon as both him and Ikkakumon gave Veggiemon a glare as a threat.

"N-no thank you!" The digimon released Jou from his grasp and ran away screaming.

"Brother!" Takeru ran up to Yamato and tackled him into a hug. "Jou saved me!" He said with a bright smile on his face.

Hearing his name get mentioned, Jou looked at Takeru then at Yamato. Likewise, the older blonde did the same, but was embarrassed to do so after what he did to Joe. 

"That was unusually heroic of you, Jou!" Taichi said as he went up to him. 

Jou slightly blushed in embarrassment at Taichu's words for him. "You didn't have to add "unusually" to that." 

"But you were really cool, Jou!" Gomamon commented.

"Really, really!" Tsunomon added.

Jou couldn't help but chuckle and felt the tension in the air slightly disappear. 

"Jou..." Yamato took a single step, a blush tainted on his face. "Thank you...for saving Takeru..." 

"That's okay. After all, you're always saving me." Jou grinned.

"Also...!" Yamato looked up to face Jou, a small smile creeping on his face. "I'm sorry..."

"Yamato..." Joe chuckled.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

The group carefully listened to what Taichi is saying about his, somehow, so realistic dream and when he woke up and he suddenly turned into a digimon as they head towards the mountain.

"So what you're saying is..." Yamato started. "If we don't do something about this world, the effects will move over to our world, and you can somehow breathe out fire like Agumon." 

"I guess that's one way to put it." 

A loud beeping emanated from Taichi and Yamato's digivice, catching the other's attention more. The once human fished out the device from his belt and checked where the next signal is coming from.

"Apparently if one of our friends is nearby, this starts beeping." Taichi explained.

"Then someone must be close by." Jou went up to Taichi to look at the digivice. "Which way is it?"

"Mine's this way." Taichi pointed at the right path of the mountain.

"Mine's over there." Yamato gestured at the left.

"Then why don't we split into two groups and look for them?" Taichi suggested, in which everyone agreed on.

"Okay. I'll go with Takeru." Said Yamato.

"Then you come with me, Jou." 

"But what'll happen if we don't see each other afterwards?" Jou asks, suddenly being slightly concern about the plan.

"Let's meet at the bottom of that mountain, then!" Said Taichi as he pointed at their meeting spot.

"Okay. Let's do that." Yamato agreed.

"Hey, will we really see each other again?" Takeru asked in concern when he feel a little concern about them not meeting up.

"We will!" Yamato joyfully responded. "Because we're friends!" 

"Yeah! We'll definitely meet again!" Taichi gave them a toothy grin, which made the others tense a little because of how sharp his teeth actually is, especially the two big fang on the bottom protruding out of his lips.

"Yeah, that's right!" Jou added. "After all, we're friends!" 

After that, they went their own way to go meet the others.


	3. The Sleeping Tyrant! TonosamaGekomon!

"What a great weather." Agumon said as he let out a relaxing sigh.

"The water's sparkling, and it feels great!" Gomamon added.

"Keep it up, you two!" Agumon cheered at the exhausted Jou and Taichi, who is pedaling the boat, while both him and Gomamon are having a relaxing ride.

"We'd like more than anything to trade places with you...but we're just too short to reach the pedals!" Gomamon and Agumon laughed.

Taichi scoffed. "You have absolutely no intention of switching with us to begin with!" He yelled out at the two.

Agumon lowered his head to look at the two and asked. "Is it that obvious?"

"Totally obvious."

"Oh?" 

Gomamon and Agumon just laughed once again.

It didn't take them too long to arrive at the shore, but if you're the one who's been pedaling you might feel like hours had passed.

"That's..."

Everyone's mouth was left hanging open as they all stared up at the giant castle at the top of the mountain.

"A castle..."

Taichi's digivice started beeping again, in which he brought up to check on it. "The signal is coming from inside." 

And they proceed to walk up the stairs on the side of the mountain. Taichi decided to walk on all fours since he keeps on tripping and almost falling off the stairs. "Stupid new legs."

Then they finally arrived at the top. In front of them is a giant white door, they didn't knock and opened the door. Peeking in, they could see dozens of digimons running around in such a hurry. Some of them are holding foods and other accessories, while the others are busy cooking or bumping at each other out of panic.

"So busy, tama!" 

"So busy, ribbit!"

Taichi slightly opened the door more wider when he saw what the digimons are. "Frogs and tadpoles?" 

"What are they doing?" Jou pondered as they all watch the digimons run left and right.

"So busy, ribbit!" A Geckomon keeps repeating while running around.

"So busy, tama!" A Otamamon exclaimed.

"Hey, hey!" Gomamon called as they all approached a panicking Geckomon. "Why are you in such a rush?"

"Why?" Geckomon raised a finger as he explained. "The princess said she wants fried rice with roast pork, shrimp and assorted vegetables right this minute, ribbit!" 

"Fried rice?" They wondered, bewildered of such request.

"No, ribbit! The princess said she wants cold yaki-udon, ribbit!" A Geckomon exclaimed.

"Cold yaki-udon?" Taichi and the others chorused.

"What are you saying, ribbit?" Another Geckomon interjected. "The princess wants simmering okara miso soup made Mediterranean Sea-style, ribbit!"

"Okara miso soup made Mediterranean Sea-style?" They repeated again.

"No, ribbit! It's fried rice!" Geckomon yelled out as he threw his hands in the air.

"Cold yaki-udon, ribbit!" The other argued back.

"Okara miso soup made Mediterranean Sea-style, ribbit!" Yelled the other.

"Now, now. What if you made all of that and gave it..." Taichi waved his hands as he tried to calm them down, but he was immediately interrupted by Otamamon.

"They're all wrong, tama!" He exclaimed. 

"What now?" Jou muttered as they turned to look at Otamamon.

"The princess wants a gaudy-looking polka-dotted dress, tama!" 

"No, tama!" A Otamamon interjected. "She wants a retro ring, tama!"

"Polka-dotted dress, tama!" The other digimon argued back.

"Retro ring, tama!"

And the arguement between the princess's needs goes on. 

"If the princess jerks around her servants like this..." Jou started as he shared a look with Tai. 

"She must be extremely selfish." Taichi ended the sentence with a small smile.

"Hey, didn't you guys say you were in a hurry?" Agumon asks the digimons arguing.

"That's right!" And they all ran in opposite directions, now panicking again.

Then a loud music suddenly rang in the entire hallway, causing Taichi to cover his ears as his fur and tail stood up like a startled cat. Jou, Agumon and Gomamon noticed this and chuckled but their attention was soon taken by the announcement of Geckomon.

"The princess has arrived! Ribbit, ribbit!" 

At the top of the stairs, a familiar girl wearing a white and pink gown holding a fan stood like royalty. Tai and Joe's mouths hanged opened at the sight of her in surprise.

"Mimi!" 

"Oh, it's you." She says nonchalantly. "It's been a long time, Jou!"

Taichi's ears slightly droop when Mimi doesn't seem to recognize him. "Hey, Mimi! It's me, Taichi!" He said while waving a paw at her with a toothy smile.

"T-taichi? But you're--"

"A digimon. Yeah, it's complicated."

"What are you doing here?" He finally asked.

"What am I doing here?" Mimi repeated as she opened her fan to cover half of her face. "I'm being a princess. Can't you tell?" She said, seemingly happy about her role.

"Then that means the selfish princess around her..." Agumon paused for a second.

"Was you!?" Everyone exclaimed in unison.

"Who are you calling selfish!?" Mimi yelled out, slightly offended by the chosen words her friends said, actually fully offended. She crossed her arms and scoffs. "How rude!"

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Mimi and the others went to the room she was staying in, since Taichi told her that they needed to talk.

"Anyway, it's good to see you're safe." Jou said.

"Come on, go and change!" Taichi told her. "Let's get out of here!"

"Huh?" Mimi seems to be surprise by her once human friend. 

"Something wrong, Mimi?" Jou asked.

"Why do I have to change?" 

"What do you mean why? It'll be hard to walk on that dress!" Said Agumon, confuse about Mimi's reaction, not just him though but the others too.

"Why do I have to walk?" Mimi asked, now sounding a bit more annoyed. 

Taichi's mouth just hanged open in confusion while Jou puts his hands on his hips and told her, "We can't travel while carrying you on our backs!"

"I'm not going." The others gasp in shock at her answer. "There's no guarantee that we'll be able to return to our own world. So why should I bother traveling out there where its dangerous?"

"Hey, Mimi..." Jou tried to talk to her but she interrupted him before he could say another word.

"Besides, I have everything in here! A bath, a soft bed and good food!" She turned to look at them as she gestured at herself. "What's more, I'm the princess of this castle!"

"Mimi, is something wrong?" 

Everyone whip their head around at the source of the familiar voice from behind the door.

"That strange voice..." Said Agumon.

"It's Palmon!" Gomamon exclaimed.

"It's good to have you here, Palmon!" Jou said in relief. "Talk some senses into her!"

"About what?" Palmon went in the room wearing a gown ressembling Mimi's, which made the other's hope crumble down.

"Palmon! You too!?" Jou shouted at the plant digimon's face.

"Hey." Taichi averted his gaze at the both of them with a small frown on his fanged lips. "Mimi and Palmon, we can't waste time playing along with your jokes! Hurry up and get ready!"

"I am not joking around!" Mimi yelled out as she raised both of her arms. Tai and Joe just stared at her with their mouth open. "I'm serious about staying here! If you don't have anything else to say, the hurry up and get out!"

"Hey, Mimi. Why are you mad?" Palmon asked in concern.

"Palmon, you be quiet!" She shouted at her partner.

Taichi raised up a clenched fist as a low growl escaped his throat. "Give me a break! You think we'll just agree with you quietly and leave?"

"He's right!" Jou agreed as he went up beside the annoyed Taichi. "Besides, don't you know what we went through to get here?"

Mimi just crossed her arms and turned away. "I don't even want to know!"

"Oh, that's it!" Taichi exclaimed, his arms raised in the air, frustrated at Mimi's antics. "Now you can never make me leave this place!" Then he sat down cross-legged with his tail wrapped around him. "I won't move from this spot until you say you're coming!"

"Me, neither!" Both Agumon and Gomamon agreed as they followed Tai's lead.

"Oh, really? Well, I have an idea!" Mimi rang the small bell in her hands, and not a second pass, all of the Geckomon are standing right outside the door. 

"Princess! Is there a problem, ribbit ribbit?" 

"These people want to leave, so show them the exit!" It wasn't a friendly request, but a cold demand. 

"Understood, ribbit ribbit!"

The Geckomons then carried the four away from Mimi's room. 

"Wait, stop!" 

"Mimi, what happened to you!?"

But the digimons are only listening to their princess's orders, which unfortunately they no longer have any time to talk some senses into her. Palmon could only watch her friends get taken away powerlessly. Sure she's Mimi's digimon partner but that doesn't mean she can also order the frogs around anytime she wants like Mimi does, not that she would though. 

"Mimi..." 

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

"Oww!!"

The four was thrown right outside of the castle rather roughly. 

"That hurt!" Taichi whimpered, his ears dropped down but his claws are bared dangerously at them.

"Treat your guest more courteously!" Gomamon shouted.

"In any case, I wonder what happened to Mimi." Jou wondered as he fixed his glasses.

"She's assuming too much because those frogs are spoiling her!" Said Taichi.

"You're exactly right, ribbit." 

Standing at the castle entrance, there are three Geckomons and two Otamamons looking at them wearing such a glum expression.

Then those digimons led them to another entrance in the castle. The entrance through the stage where, what seems, the digimons are holding their parties and special occassions at.

"This is our lord, ribbit." Geckomon said as he gestured at the huge orange like digimon sitting with his back turned at them. 

"That's a pretty big statue." Taichi commented.

"It's not a statue, ribbit!" Said the other Geckomon. "It's our lord himself, ribbit!" 

What he said made the four quite surprise at the revelation. 

"That thing is still alive?" Agumon asked, still trying to process what they said.

"Yes, tama!"

"He's been like this for the past 300 years, ribbit!" Geckomon explained. "It's said that the shock from losing a karaoke match put him into this state, ribbit! To bring back our lord, a voice that is lovlier than the one he lost to must sing to him, ribbit! So, we've tried holding a karaoke competition every year, ribbit, but our lord doesn't even twitch, ribbit!"

"Of course, this made us think that the legend is really a lie, ribbit, but..." Geckomon paused. 

"Just at that moment..." Otamamon continued. "We heard there was a human girl who was good at singing, and we welcomed her here like a princess, tama! And after so long, this is how things ended up, tama!" 

"At first, the princess sang for us once every three days, ribbit, but..." Geckomon paused once again, looking more glum than he was before. "Now she uses that to her advantage to get everything she wants!"

"When we try to refuse her demands..." Otamamon added. "She would say that she won't be singing for us anymore."

"We can't talk back at her at all when she says that, tama!" Said the other Otamamon. Tears now threatening to escape their eyes.

"So that's how Mimi became selfish..." Said Jou with his arms crossed.

"That's why we have a request for you, ribbit!" Geckomon plead.

"Can you get the princess to sing for us, tama?"

"But I doubt she'll even listen to us..." Agumon trailed off.

Taichi, who has been carefully listening to them them and being awfully quiet the whole time, clenched his fist and agreed. "Okay." He slapped his chest proudly with his paws in full confidence. "Leave it to me!" The others just looked at him in either shock and surprise.

"You'll ask her for us, ribbit!?" The Otamamon yelp in joy.

Jou, however, felt this acceptance was too quick to be made considering how Mimi is acting acting right now. "Hey, Taichi!"

"So what you're saying is, getting this big guy to wake up is all you need, right?" Said the once human while pointing at the giant digimon on the stage. "Just leave the singing to me!"

Everyone's mouth just hanged open and looked at him, unable to form any words at Tai's sudden burst of confidence. 

They didn't object his idea though and decided to give it a shot. As Taichi sang, rather broken, the digimon didn't move an inch, not even a small twitch. Taichi scoffed at this failure.

"Here, let me try." Jou snatched the mic from his hands and gave it a go, but it was the same result as Taichi's attempt, also his lyrics are wrong in a lot of ways. 

But when Agumon and Gomamon did it, it was far more worst than the both of them combined. Everyone has their ears covered, Taichi used his blue headband to tie up his ears to try and block out the horrible sound that's entering his mind. Even with their own attempts, the digimon didn't move, much to their disappointment.

"No good..." Taichi sighed as he fixed up his headban.

"It's impossible to wake him up unless it's Mimi singing." Said Jou in disappointment.

"You guys!" Called out a familiar voice.

"Palmon!" Taichi exclaimed.

"I was worried about you." The plant digimon went up to them. "What happened?"

"What do you mean what happened?" Agumon asked. "Haven't you realized that Mimi's been acting strange lately?"

"Strange?" Palmon crossed her arms and grumbled while looking at the floor. Then her serious expression changed into a quite relieved one. "You think so too? I've been thinking that maybe she has!"

Everyone facepalmed internally. "Hey..." Taichi grumbled.

"At least figure that out for yourself." Gomamon said.

Palmon just chuckled at her own self and placed a hand on her head.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Everyone hid at Mimi's balcony right outside of her room with the box of recording on the floor connected to the karaoke in the room. Taichi is in charge of taking the recording with the headphone on one of his ear, because he complained about his sensitive hearing a lot, while the others checks what's happening inside the room.

"A recorder, huh? Good idea!" Said Jou.

"I can be pretty smart when I want to be." Taichi commented.

The door suddenly opened from the inside so Gomamon quickly alerted them. "Here she comes!" And they all went to their respective positions.

Agumon and Jou peaked in behind the window and saw Mimi went inside.

"What's this?" Mimi gestured at the karaoke beside Palmon.

"A karaoke set." The plant digimon replied.

"I can see that. What's it doing here?"

Palmon stuttered for a second and tried to find the best excuse she could give her. "I just suddenly felt like listening to your beautiful singing." Then she handed the mic to Mimi sheepishly.

"Well, here we go." Music emanated from the karaoke as Palmon pressed the button. Mimi smiled and slightly dance at the song with Palmon following her lead, at the same time, the recorder is successfully doing its job right outside the balcony.

Of course, Mimi may be selfish but she wasn't oblivious. She noticed the wire connected to the karaoke and followed it with her eyes, leading outside and saw Agumon and Jou's head slightly peaking out of the window.

Mimi's brows furrowed in annoyance, she inhaled and screamed loudly at the mic, causing Taichi and the others to scream too.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

The metallic door clamped shut right in front of them, completely isolated with no way of getting out.

"I can easily figure out what you guys are thinking." Said Mimi with a proud smile on her face as the Geckomon locked the gate.

"Mimi! Open your eyes!" Exclaimed Taichi. 

"Mimi!" Agumon and Gomamon yelled out.

"Do you realize right now what you're doing?" Jou said to her.

"Oh?" Mimi averted her eyes and placed her index finger on her chin as she pretends to think. "Did I do something wrong?"

"You can't even figure that out anymore?" Taichi's grip tightened on the bars, his claws making an uncomfortable sound but he stays unfazed by it. "Don't you feel anything by doing this to your friends?"

"It's not just us! You're causing a lot of trouble for the Geckomon too!" Agumon added.

The Geckomons tensed when Mimi shot them all a glare and stayed quiet. 

"Hmp!" 

"Mimi!" Everyone called.

Mimi ignored it and went on her way out but stopped when Palmon said something.

"Doing this is too dreadful for you, Mimi! When you act like this..." Palmon paused unable to say what's on her mind. "When you act like this... I HATE YOU!" 

Mimi gasp at the unexpected words Palmon chose. "I see." She muttered.

"Well, I HATE you too!" Mimi snapped at her digimon and went on her way.

Palmon just hung her head down as she frowned deeply.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

(Skip to after Sora talked to Mimi.)

Loud snores emanated from the jail cell. Everyone was fast asleep after all that things happened between them and Mimi. Gomamon and Jou slept soundly and peacfully while Agumon and Taichi remained at the same position as the other, Palmon cuddling on Taichi's fluffy and furry body because of the warmth his fur is giving.

Everyone is sleeping soundly, that is until their cages opened loudly. 

"What is it?" Asked Taichi as he rubbed his eyes with his back hand.

"Get out, ribbit." Said Geckomon.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

It was still nightime and Taichi and the others were called in what seems to be a gathering in the room where the digimon's lord is resting.

As they entered the halls, they could hear everyone complaining about Mimi again.

"What does she want from us so late at night, ribbit?" 

"She's probably going to give us more difficult orders, ribbit."

And it went on.

Right at the stage, Mimi entered, now wearing her usual clothes rather than the giant gown she was always wearing since she got here. Everyone was shock at the sight right in front of them. 

"Mimi!"

Mimi slowly went up in front of the mic and sheepishly said. "Geckomon and Otamamon...Taichi, Jou, Agumon, Gomamon...and Palmon." She paused momentarily, everyone is now clearly listening to her. "Everyone, I'm sorry!"

All of them were shocked by the sudden apology yet they are also confuse about her sudden change of attitude right now.

"What's wrong, ribbit?" Loud mumbles now filled the room, then they quickly went quiet when Mimi continues.

"I know that apologizing might not be enough, but I've come to my senses! I've realized how horribly I've been treating all of you! So...So...!" 

Tears threatened to spill out of her eyes, her cheeks now rosy red from all the shame she felt from all that she had done. 

"Mimi, sing for us!" Palmon told her, now smiling.

"We want to hear you sing, princess, ribbit!" Said one Geckomon.

Then everyone joined in as they started screaming encouraging words to her that made her emotions spill out, but kept herself in control.

"You guys..." She wiped her tears away and cracked a small smile.

"Start the music!" Palmon yelled out, and the entire room darkened except for Mimi's spotlight.

As the music started, Mimi started singing. Her beautiful voice filled the entire room. Everyone watched her in awe.

Then as she sang the song, the digimon's lord slowly moved.

Taichi and the others danced along joyfully at the song, and as Mimi progress, the giant digimon's movements became more frequent until...

Everyone gasp as the giant digimon stood up and turned towards them, looking at all of them in annoyance than being thankful. 

"I was having a wonderful nap." He growled. "Who woke me up, ribbit!?"

TonosamaGeckomon stomped his feet and tried to squish them but missed as eveyone ran away from him. He broke the castle's walls as he chase them.

"What the heck is up with that!? He's a villain!" Gomamon exclaimed as he and the others continue to run towards the exit.

"No one told us he was a tyrant!" Jou screamed out.

"We shouldn't have woken him up if we knew about this, ribbit!" Geckomon shouted.

"Kabushi Tone!" TonosamaGeckomon yelled out, getting his attack ready. "I want you to leave me stranded in the rain~" His song then turned into a ferocious attack coming from the giant horns on his back, and that attack of his successfully hits everyone but Mimi, which pushed them off of the castle and fell down the water.

"Mimi!"

A giant block of a piece of the roof cracked and fell directly at Mimi, however, she was saved by Togemon, who quickly reacted and evolved.

"Are you okay, Mimi?" 

"Togemon, I'm sorry!" 

"It doesn't matter..." Said Togemon.

"Togemon...I love you Togemon." Mimi hugged her digimon's red glove, which Togemon genuinley returns.

"I love you too, Mimi."

"Togemon..." Mimi looked at her and smiled

Then Mimi picked up the mic and shouted at TonosamaGeckomon. "Hey! You ungrateful swine!" Which really caught the digimon's attention. "Don't you even know who you woke up?"

"Who cares about that!" Tonosamageckomon yelled out angrily. He slowly walked towards them each step, which made the ground shook everytime his foot touches the ground, but he step back when a missile exploded in front of him.

Right oustide of the castle, Ikkakumon and Greymon stood tall, Taichi being a support on his digimon's head, smoke threateningly coming out of his mouth.

"Now you've done it, bastards!" Tonosamageckomon hopped towards the giant hole on the wall.

"Mega Flame!"

"Harpoon Vulcan!"

"Flare Blast!"

However, their attacks were all futile as Tonosamageckomon countered it with another one of his signature moves. "Kabushi Tone! That is a woman's disposition~"

With the powerful burst of his attack, Ikkakumon, Greymon and Taichi's assault was a failure as they all fell on the ground by the force of the giant digimon's counter. 

Taichi slowly sat up as he rub his head to soothe the pain. "U-unbelievable...!"

"He looks retarded, but he's actually pretty strong!" Said Jou.

Greymon finally regained consciousness and just in time for Tonosamageckomon's next attack. 

"Tonosama Jump!" He leaped down directly towards everyone.

A light suddenly shone from Greymon. "Greymon, super-evolve! MetalGreymon!"

"Rib-bit!?" Using his horn, Metalgreymon deflected the giant digimon back inside the castle. Togemon also jumped down with the others with Mimi in her hands.

Taichi leaped onto MetalGreymon's head, holding the digivice in his hand. Unknown to him, his other hand is sparking with fire little by little.

"Go, MetalGreymon!"

"Giga Destroyer!" 

"Ribbit?" Tonosamageckomon sat up and saw the missiles going towards him. He picked up two large boulders right by his side and threw it at the missile as it exploded into bits.

Gasps can be heard in the crowd as big chunks of rocks are slowly falling towards them. Togemon and Ikkakumon managed to blew the others into dust but was too late to notice the last big one coming towards them.

"Mimi!"

"Jou!"

Ikkakumon and Togemon provided their partners cover with their own bodies, as they braced themselves from the pain.

"NO!" Taichi leaped off of MetalGreymon's head as he instinctively bared his sparking claws in the air. "Blaze Claws!"

In just a second, the rock was oblitirated into dust.

Then as Taichi reached the ground, he inhaled deeply as feiry flames shone in his throat. "Flare Blast!"

"Hey!"

He successfully hit Tonosamageckomon right on the face and has provided them enough time and distraction for the final attack.

"Now, MetalGreymon!" 

"Giga Destroyer!"

Tonosamageckomon was too late to do anything as the missiles hit him right in his horns on his back. The missile exploded and ate up, not just him but also the castle. 

The giant digimon was left buried in the fallen castle in the meantime.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

"That was a great save back there, Taichi!" Said Koromon.

"Yeah! Thanks for that!" Gomamon said with a smile.

Taichi rubbed the back of his head sheepishly with a toothy grin. "Like I'll watch you all get crushed easily!"

"You're really learning some new moves!" Jou commented. "Who knows, maybe you can also evolve like the digimons!"

Taichi looked at him then at his paws. "Yeah...maybe." He whispered to himself, his smile slowly fading. 

Their attention was soon taken by Mimi, who is criticising the now buried TonosamaGeckomon.

"Sleep for the rest of your life!" Mimi spat out, and made the others laugh at her joke.


	4. Radiant Wings! Garudamon!

The blue ocean sparkled as the cold breeze of wind blows by. Joe, Taichi, Mimi and their digimons are on their way back to their destinated meeting points with the others, and as usual Joe and Taichi are the ones who are pedalling the boat.

"All right, we're here!" Taichi announced.

Joe exhaled as he slumped down out of exhaustion. "I'm tired..."

Taichi extended his hands towards Mimi. "Come down, princess! Give me your hand!" He said jokingly.

Of course, after all that Geckomon incident, Mimi grew tired of that name. "Don't call me a princess!"

Taichi chuckled, his tail slowly swaying back and forth. "I'm just kidding!"

Then he suddenly froze as Mimi pat his head, her hand slowly sinking in the fluffy hair. The girl gasp in amazement and started petting him. "You're like a teddy bear! So soft!"

"H-hey! Mimi!" Taichi tried pushing her away but the girl somehow got stronger than him, maybe it's because of the excitement? 

"Hey!" A familiar voice shouted.

At the top of the small mountain trail, Yamato and Takeru came running down towards them with Koushiro following behind.

"It's Yamato!" Said Joe while peaking his head out of the boat.

As Mimi's attention was turned to the others, Taichi took his opportunity and escaped from her grasp then hid behind Jou for protection.

Palmon looked down on her friends who are now in their baby forms, chuckling as she teases them. "You've turned smaller since I last saw you."

Tsunomon, Motimon and Koromon turned away from her. "Leave us alone!"

Tachi suddenly tensed when he felt someone grabbed his tail and paws. He look around and saw Koushiro examining him from head to toe.

"So it is true." He said as he gently pressed Taichi's paw, causing the claws to extend. "You did turn into a digimon! But how is that possible?"

Taichi grabbed his tail and slowly pushed his friend's hands away due to uncomfortable reasons. "I have no idea. I was hoping you would know the answer to that."

Koushiro frowned and shook his head in denial. "I'm sorry but I have little information about how this world works. I'll try my best to help you though. If there's not much help then we could always ask Gennai when he contacts us."

"Thanks, Koushiro." Taichi nodded at him then faced Yamato and asked. "Where's Sora?"

"We didn't see her." He replied.

The once human frowned in disappointment. "I see...Where could she have gone?"

"I...I think I've might have seen her." Mimi said, causing everyone's attention to turn on her.

"Where?" Taichi asked.

"At the Geckomon's palace. But...it might have been a dream..."

"So that's what happened." Joe said.

"Actually..." Koromon chirped in. "I think I saw her back when we were in that amusement park, I don't know if it's just my imagination or not..."

"Really?" Taichi wondered.

"But...If that's true then why hasn't Sora come to us?" Takeru asked.

"There's no us thinking about it." Said Yamato, calmly. "We're not her." He stared at his beeping digivice on his hand and saw another red dot on sight, and so did Taichi and Koushiro. "We'll have to catch her first."

"This is like playing hide and seek." Taichi said.

Koushiro slightly turned to his left. "It's coming from this direction."

Then they all followed the guide their digivices are showing, into the forest.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

"Hey! Sora!" Taichi yelled out.

"Sora!" Koushiro shouted.

The sun is setting yet there was still no sign of their friend. They've been searching for her non stop but it seems like Sora's really not going to show herself anytime soon for some unknown reason.

"Hey..." Joe breathes out, panting in exhaustion. "Let's stop here today and find some place to rest. It's too dangerous to wander around in the dark."

Palmon paused on her tracks when Mimi fell on her knees with a long sigh. "I'm tired..."

"But she should be around here..." Yamato muttered.

Taichi's ears suddenly perked up and turned to different directions, his nose twitching as he smelled the air with a familiar scent. 

"Taichi?" 

Patamon did the same, he stood up on Takeru's head as his wing-like ears stood.

"What's wrong?" Takeru asked.

"I can hear something." Patamon replied, which Taichi agreed to and nodded.

"Yeah...and the scent is so familiar." Taichi sniffed again, this time he intinctively went down on all fours and smelled the ground.

"Maybe it's Sora?" 

Takeru's guess was automaticallly denied when Taichi let out a menacing growl, his claws and sharp canines bared dangerously. "No! There's something coming in our direction!"

A loud buzzing was heard getting closer to them until a bee-like digimon tried to chop their head off, they luckily dodged on time before it could even had a chance.

"It's Flymon!" Koromon exclaimed.

Flymon took a sharp turn and launched itself towards them and fired miltiple stingers at them. Everyone gasp and moved out of the way.

Koushiro quickly hid behind the tree and brought out his laptop and typed. "I can bring up his stats by using the Digimon Analyzer that Gennai sent me."

In just a few seconds, Flymon's data showed in his laptop. "Here it is!"

Everyone gathered around him and listened closely. "Flymon. An insect digimon. Adult level. He's a virus type. His special attack, Deadly Sting, sprays poison stingers." Everyone tensed at the last words. "Poison stingers!?"

They scattered as Flymon fired another one of its stingers at them.

"Flare Blast!" 

A big ball of flickering flames successfully hit the incoming stinger at Taichi, but he soon realized that his attack didn't do anything and just ran away from it. Both Koromon and Tsunomon saw their partners in trouble.

"Taichi!" "Yamato!" Kormon and Tsunomon shouted in distress.

"Koromon, evolve! Agumon!"

"Tsunomon, evolve! Gabumon!"

Yamato and Taichi smiled after seeing their partners evolve. "Agumon!" "Gabumon!" 

"Baby Flame!"

"Petit Fire!"

But Flymon easily evaded their attacks.

"Oh no!" Motimon gasp. "Flymon is too fast!"

"Marching Fishes!" Another miss.

"Poison Ivy!" Another miss.

"Blaze Claws!" And another miss.

Flymon fired another round of its deadly stingers directly at Mimi and Palmon, both of them was left unharmed as they frantically stepped back with a loud yelp.

The insect digimon sharply turned and flew towards them in high speed. Taichi couldn't do anything but watch as the digimon gets another set of attack ready.

Then all of the sudden, a giant familiar orange bird came in sight in the sky.

"It's Birdramon!" Motimon exclaimed in both surprise and relief.

Birdramon flew up further into the sky before unleashing her special attack. "Meteor Wing!"

With all that raining balls of fire, Flymon lost its balance in the air and got caught by one of Birdramon's attacks and fell down burning on the ground.

"Since Birdramon's here..." Taichi watched where the giant bird digimon headed off. "Sora!" He hurried down on all fours and followed the direction where Birdramon went.

"Taichi, wait for me!" Agumon yelled out as he and the others followed their friend.

"Me too!" Gabumon shouted.

"I'm coming too!" Said Takeru.

"Takeru, don't leave me behind!" Patamon hurriedly followed his partner.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Sora halt to a stop when she almost carelessly slid off the slippery edge. She was tired and wanted to rest but Taichi's call made her panic.

"Wait, Sora!" Without wasting any time, she went down and hopped onto each rocks until she reached the other side, but she wasn't gonna stop there.

Sora saw how fast Taichi is now that he's a digimon and she's not gonna let herself get caught so easily. So she ran more further in the forest. She ran and ran and ran...until...

She was caught off guard when Taichi suddenly emerged out of the bushes, looking at her in full confusion yet worried.

"Sora!" 

Sora averted eye contact and turn around to ran back, but Yamato was there to block her way. 

"Why are you running away?" Yamato asked her. 

"Explain yourself, Sora!" Taichi shouted as he approached her but stopped abruptly when he saw Sora flinch and look at him with, what it seems like, a fearful gaze. 

She looked down on her feet and stayed quiet. Taichi, however, is now hesitating to take another step towards her. He swallowed a lump in his throat and asked. "A-are you...afraid of me?"

This caught the girl's attention as she stared at Taichi's upsetting expression and shakes her head. "No. I'm not."

Taichi was relieved to know, but he still wasn't going to let her go. He needed her true reason why she's avoided them all of the sudden. 

Sora hung her head again in order to avoid eye contact from them.

"Sora..."

The others were soon finally able to catch up to them, except for Mimi, Palmon, Joe and Gomamon, they stood behind Yamato and looked at Sora.

"Sora, do you...hate us now?" Takeru asked.

The girl shook her head. "No...That's not it..."

Piyomon soon came flying down towards her partner. "Sora...why don't you tell them?"

Sora hesitated at telling them, but she knew they eventually need to know the truth behind all the avoidance. So she spoke... "When Piyomon and I...left that night to look for Taichi..." She paused for a moment, then continued. "I...I saw them. I saw Picodevimon talking to someone."

"What are they talking about?" Takeru asked her calmly.

"Our crest."

"Our crest?" Taichi questioned.

"Yes." Then she continued. "Each of our crest has a different meaning. For example, you have the Crest of Courage, Taichi."

"Crest of Courage?" The once human repeated in a questioning tone, then he remembered. The time when he washed all of his fears away just to save Sora and his crest glowed after that action.

"I see. So that's why my Crest glowed back then!" He said as he stare at his Crest on his palm.

Sora then turned to Yamato and continue explaning. "Yamato, yours is the Crest of Friendship."

Yamato held onto his necklace and looked at it in wonder. "Friendship."

"What about mine?" Takeru asked in curiousity.

"Yours is the Crest of Hope." 

Patamon and Takeru looked at each other with smile glued on their lips. "The Crest of Hope!"

"Koushiro has the Crest of Knowledge. Jou has the Crest of Sincerity. Mimi has the Crest of Purity." She explained, then a large frown etched on her face. "And mine is...the Crest of Love."

Taichi smirked. "Love fits you perfectly, Sora."

"No it doesn't!" She snapped, clenching her hands into a fist as her body shakes. "It doesn't fit me at all!"

"B-but...you always think about the others and..." But Taichi was interupted by Sora's yells.

"I don't care about the others!" Sora exhaled. "You don't...You don't know what I'm really like, so stop talking as if you do!" 

Taichi just watched her yell at him in disbelief. He didn't know how to respond to her when she's like this. Right now, Sora looks so...broken.

The girl was quick to realize what she was doing though, and hung her head low in shame, unable to face the once human anymore. "I'm sorry..."

"W-what's wrong?" Taichi asked carefully.

Sora brought her Crest up near to her chest and looked at it. "My Crest...it won't glow."

Taichi blinked as he let out a gasp.

"Because I don't have any love." She muttered.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

"What do you mean you don't have any love?" Takeru asked her.

Taichi placed both hands on the back of his head as his tail slowly sways back and forth. "I don't understand it at all. Man, girls are so much trouble."

"Don't make fun of her, Taichi!" Yamato scolded while calmly leaning back onto the tree.

Taichi straightened as he look at Yamato. "I'm just kidding!"

Sora, who is now sitting on the ground with her back slouched, explained. "Picodevimon told me...he said he pity me and that I was raised without knowing any real love."

"Don't be stupid!" Said Taichi. "Picodevimon was obviously lying!"

"No..." She quietly replied. "He wasn't lying. It happened...back when I was on the girls' soccer team...I was their ace striker. Me and mom had an agrument and I ended up yelling at her and running away."

"Sora, your house is famous for traditional flower arrangement, isn't it?" Taichi asked.

"Yeah. My family is an ie-moto."

"What's an "ie-moto"?" Takeru asked.

"It means her mother is a master who teaches flower arranging." Yamato explained to his younger brother.

After a small moment, Sora continued. "In the end, we lost horribly from that game. I couldn't stay in that club anymore. My mom doesn't see me as anything beyond the daughter of a flower arrangement school! She thinks our reputation as an ie-moto is more important than I am!" She tightened her grip on her crest. "That's the kind of woman she is! So...even if I am raised without love there's nothing I can do about that!"

Sora screamed out as she prepares to throw the crest away in anger, fortunately Taichi was there to prevent her from doing so. "Stop it, Sora!" Taichi held her arm, careful not to harm her with his claws. 

"Let go of me!" She squirmed her hand around to make Taichi release his grip but the boy was far more stronger than she is.

"Whether that's true or not, you can't believe in what Picodevimon said!"

Sora whimpered, tears threatening to escape her eyes as she tried to hold in the strong emotions but ended up failing and cried, which made Taichi let go of her in surprise. 

"Hey, don't cry!" Taichi's ears drooped then perked up every second, perplexed about what he needs to do, so he asked the blonde. "H-hey, Yamato...What should I do?"

"If she wants to cry, then let her." Yamato replied calmly.

Taichi's ears quickly perked up when he heard Agumon and Gabumon talking at the back.

"Yamato is so mature." Said Agumon.

"Well, more than Taichi anyway." Gabumon added.

The once human was about to say something to them until Takeru told the crying Sora. "Sora...Thank you."

The girl stopped crying then looked at the young boy. 

"You're watching our backs for a while now, right?"

"We knew Picodevimon was plotting something, so we followed him secretly." Piyomon explained. "Also, when Yamato and Jou were working in Digitamamon's restaurant..."

Yamato interrupted her after realizing what really happened back then. "I didn't know."

"You didn't have to hide from us." Taichi said to Sora, but Piyomon decided to answer for her partner.

"Sora wanted to be alone. But she couldn't just leave the rest of you completely. Then when we found out Taichi became a digimon, Sora wanted to show herself and understand how it happened...but she didn't. Understand her, okay?"

Takeru looked up at Sora and told her. "I really like you, Sora." The girl turned to face him with a surprise expression on her face. "So don't leave us anymore, okay? I don't like it when my family..." Takeru paused then grinned at her. "I mean, when everyone becomes separated."

"Takeru..."

The boy's words finally sinked in her mind and also realized the horrible thing's she had said to them and and how she complains about her crest. Sora took deep breaths and wiped her tears away. 

"Okay. I won't." A small smile formed on her lips. "I'm sorry."

Then suddenly, three familiar figures came running towards them. "Hey!" It was Koushiro, Jou and Mimi with their digimons.

In excitement to see the others, Taichi's tail wag happily behind him without him knowing. Yamato and Sora held their laughter in while Takeru, Patamon, Agumon and Gomamon stared at it in awe. 

"Hey! What took you so long?" Taichi grinned widely as he waves at the newcomers.

"Jou took his time after falling into the river!" Mimi replied.

"Mimi, you kept sitting down and complaining how tired and hungry you were!" Jou stuttered.

"Hey!"

Sora wiped all the remaining tears away from her cheeks then turns her attention to Taichi. She slowly extended her arms out towards him then placed it down on the boy's head. "Mimi was right, you are soft." She said, smiling innocently.

"Not you too!" 

Unknown to them, Picodevimon spied on the chosen children behind the bush with a sneer smile glued on his lips. "They're all here." He muttered. "I must inform Vamdemon of this right away."

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Night time came quite faster, the chosen children settled in to camp and rest for the day. Everyone was fast asleep and no one was left to keep guard, they were to exhausted that they ended up falling into slumber immediately.

The forest remains quiet, only the sound of the burning wood and small critters can be heard. It was cold but the fire keeps the children's body warm and stable.

Seeing how peaceful they are sleeping, Picodevimon peaked out behind the tree near the chosen childrens anf digimon. "They're all sleeping deeply."

He took out one of his Pico Darts and quietly glided towards Sora. "I'll pick off a few of them before Vamdemon arrives."

Unfortunately, Piyomon woke up after sensing an intruder nearby.

"Pico darts!"

"Sora, look out!" She used her body to protect her partner's which resulted on being the one who got hit with the dart on her side.

"Piyomon!" Sora tensed and immediately sat up to aid Piyomon. The bird digimon grunts as Sora took out the large dart off of her body. "Piyomon! Hang in there! Piyomon!"

"Sora..." Piyomon mumbled weakly. "I'll protect you..."

"Piyomon!"

All the loud commotion caused the others to wake up. 

Taichi sat up and turned to look at the damages. "What? What's wrong?"

Takeru suddenly gasp after seeing the familiar digimon. "It's Picodevimon!"

The bat digimon started to panic as he flail around and tried to get away from them. 

However, it only got worse. Their entire surrounding suddenly turned pitch black as the thick clouds in the sky covered the moon. The only light source they have is the burning wood they have set up.

Then as the clouds dispersed, the noticed that the moon's color changed into blood red, and a black figure from the sky is flying down to them.

"Wh...what's that!?" Taichi tensed at the mysterious carriage that's being pulled by the digimon.

The carriage door opened then a large coffin emerged out of it and opened mid-air, revealing someone covering himself in a dark cloak as he landed safely on the ground.

"Chosen children." He spoke.

The digimon's voice made Sora remember and immediately recognized who it is. "That's him! He's the guy Picodevimon was talking to!" She yelled out while pointing at the big digimon.

"Don't call him by such rude terms!" Picodevimon shouted. "This is Vamdemon!"

Beads of sweat runs down on Taichi's furry face. Just by the digimon's presence he could feel the overwhelming power coming from him. It made him feel uneasy. "Vamdemon?" He managed to spat out.

"Vamdemon!" Picodevimon yelled out in frustration.

A low chuckle emanated from Vamdemon and says to the children in the most coldest voice. "Your journey ends here. Night Raid!" 

He threw his cape behind him then dozens of bats came flying towards the Chosen Children.

"Let's go, guys!" Agumon cried out then the digimons didn't hesitate on charging towards their enemy, even after sensing the incredible power Vamdemon has. Taichi also joined in their digimon allies since he knew they all needed a lot of help, not only that but he also have his own powers to protect his friends from harm.

"Baby Flame!"

"Petit Fire!"

"Flare Blast!"

A bright light shone as their friend digimon evolves to its child form. "Motimon, evolve! Tentomon!"

The bug digimon's antennas started sparking with lightning, and after charging it up he fired. "Petit Thunder!"

"Air Shot!"

One by one, the bats died off as each of them eaither falls on the ground or disappear, but it wasn't enough to stop another horde.

"They just keep coming!" Koushiro cried out alarmingly.

A flock of bats got through the digimon's strong defence and started attacking Jou and Mimi.

"Mimi!" Palmon glowed brightly and evolves to her adult form. "Palmon, evolve! Togemon!"

Togemon ran towards the bats and warned his friends before making an attack. "Everyone, get down! Chiku-Chiku Bang Bang!"

Most of the bats got caught by Togemon's wide assault as they disappear out of thin air. Seeing this chance as an advantage, Gomamon yelled out to his friends. "Now!" Then took his chance to evolve. "Gomamon, evolve! Ikkakumon! Harpoon Vulcan!"

Multiple horns ejected out from his forehead then the missiles flew towards Vamdemon, who didn't bother to dodge and just smirked, and exploded.

"You got him!" Jou exclaimed. 

However, everyone's relief was short lived as Vamdemon emerged out of the giant smoke unscathed.

"You think you've won? Bloody Stream!" A crimson lasso launched towards Togemon. Vamdemon laughed and summoned another one from his other hands started attacking the digimons one by one.

"He's...strong..." Agumons whimpered in pain as they all collapse on the ground.

Taichi groaned and tried to move his body but he couldn't move any of his limbs at all due to the strong attack Vamdemon did. "N-no way..."

Their digimons, including their friend, was unconscious and could barely even speak. Everyone was defenceless.

"I have to go..." Piyomon groaned. 

Sora looked at her injured digimon in surprise.

"I'm the only one left..."

"You can't!" Sora insisted. "How do you plan on attacking him with your wounds!?"

"Please understand, Sora..." While the two are talking, Vamdemon slowly walks towards the children with a sneer smile on his face. "I have to go!"

"You can't!"

"Let go!" 

Piyomon struggles to escape Sora's protective grasp, ignoring the wild pain she could feel in her wound. 

"No! You can't go!"

"Why can't you understand!?"

Those words made Sora froze and remember the exact same thing she told her mom. It made her realize that she was acting just like her mother, but also made her realize that she was only doing it to protect her.

"Piyomon, evolve! Birdramon!"

Sora gasp when she snap out of her trance and saw Birdramon charging towards the enemy.

"Meteor Wing!"

Her attacks were easily blocked by Vamdemon using his cape as a shield then the vampire digimon immediately countered it. "Bloody Stream!" And successfully hit Birdramon as she slowly descends down the ground.

"Birdramon!" Sora yelled out as she frantically ran towards her digimon, unknown to her that her crest started glowing brightly. "BIRDRAMON!"

A huge light bursts out of Birdramon's body as she started to evolve to another level. "Birdramon, super evolve! Garudamon!"

Vamdemon covered himself with his arms from the terrifyingly bright light coming from Garudamon. "W-what is that light!?"

Garudamon bent down and carefully scopped up her partner onto her talon-like hands. "Sora, your love...I felt so much of it!" She happily told her.

Sora sobs with a small smile glued on her face. "Piyomon...You look so cool!"

Vamdemon growled in frustration as he tightens his fist. "The Crest of Love just had to activate at the most crucial moment!"

"I will protect Sora." Said Garudamon. She flew a few feet up in the air and charged up her special attack. "Shadow Wing!"

She released a giant flame towards Vamdemon. The digimon growled and tried to counter it with another attack. "Night Raid!" 

The two attacks collided and formed a bright light. With Vamdemon being too focused on protecting himself, Garudamon and the others took this chance to escape.

"Come on, let's run while we still can!" Said Garudamon as she picked them up and flew towards the rising sun before Vamdemon could even recover.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

"See?" Said Taichi, who is flexing his strained arm and legs after being ruthlessly attacked by Vamdemon. "There was nothing to worry about. Your Crest glowed after all."

Everyone is now having their well deserved break near the lake where they considered safe. They were tired, especially the digimons who got hit by Vamdemon in the fight but they're slowly recovering as usual, except for Taichi. 

The boy is still new to this whole being digimon thing, getting hurt a lot was the thing he always thought about but he didn't know it would be this hard. Is this how Agumon and the others feel everytime they protect them? Well one thing's for sure, he's also experiencing how digimons live and how they quickly recover than a human being. 

"Before I knew what I was doing..." Sora responded. "I was acting just like my mom." 

"Sora..." Pyocomon smiled at her partner, which Sora gratefully returned with a small chuckle.

"That's when I understood..." She continued. "My mom loved me all along."

"I felt it too! I felt your love!" Said Pyocomon. 

"I'm sorry about before." Sora apologized, the tone of her voice sounding calm and happy.

Pyocomon accepted it and gave her a warm smile. "I'm glad you're back to your usual self!"

Taichi's tail slowly wagged as he agreed to Pyocomon. "I want Sora's love too." He joked.

"Taichi, you dummy!" Jou exclaimed. "What do you think you're saying!?"

"Huh? Jou, your face is red." Takeru pointed out.

Mimi went up to Jou, hiding somethi g in her palms and said jokingly. "Jou! Shall I give you my love?"

She opened her hands and put it on Jou's hands. The older boy sighed after seeing a bunch of seeds on his palms.

"Mimi...you know..." He deadpanned.

Everyone laughed at what Mimi did, while Yamato is busy playin his harmonica to Gabumon, and Sora resting with Pyocomon near the water.

But their peace was short lived as dark clouds slowly covered the sky while a bone chilling laugh echoed in the area.

"That voice!" Sora tensed.

"Chosen Children." Said the voice. "With only the power of seven, you cannot thwart the might of our evil powers."

A loud groan snapped them out of the voice in the sky, they whip their heads towards the source of the pained whimpers only to see Taichi holding his head with his teeth clenched. His orange eyes are noticably turning into slits as he collapse on the ground with a loud scream.

"TAICHI!"


	5. Vamdemon's Castle of Darkness

After all those horrific events with Vamdemon, the Chosen Children decided to take a little break near the river where Jou and Taichi are collecting some water in the bag, actually Taichi is on the shore while Jou dipped himself in the water, Taichi wouldn't admit it but he felt a little scared about going in the water, while Mimi and Palmon sat on a rock, watching him.

Jou raised up a bag full of water and showed it to Mimi. "These bags are useful, aren't they? I swiped them from the restaurant."

Gomamon swam towards his partner as he sigh. "I though your dilligence was all you had going for you, but I see even you make some nice moves, Jou!"

"Well, yeah." He then turned to look at Mimi, who is frowning the whole time. "Mimi, cheer up."

"But now that Vamdemon appeared, we'll have to keep running like we did with Etemon, right?" She asked, a concern look glued on her face.

"Well, that's true..." Jou turned around and looked at Taichi, looking for a decent answer from the digimon boy.

Taichi wrapped the bag full of water in his tail and hopped onto the other side. "What? That's only for the time being." He replied with a smile.

"We'll take him down sooner or later." Palmon stated.

"Yeah."

"Anyway, besides that..." Jou stared at Taichi with a concern expression. "Are you sure you're fine working right now, Taichi?"

The boy paused for a moment as he stared at him, then his face lit up, a huge grin curved into his fanged mouth. "Yeah! It's nothing to worry about, Jou. It's just a headache, nothing serious."

Jou didn't believe him so easily though. He studied medicine for some quite time now with his brother, and he learned a thing or two about sickness and symptoms. Right now, he could feel a lie coming out of Taichi's mouth. That's not just a simple headache you get everyday. "But Taichi---"

Then suddenly, Koushiro came running down towards Taichi with Tentomon following him from behind, Jou's chance to check his friend slipped away from his grasp. "Taichi!"

"What's up? Are you guys finished preparing the food?" Taichi asked.

"It's not that! Gennai is here!"

"Gennai?" The three chorused questionably.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

The Chosen Children and their digimons circled around the metal pad where Gennai's hologram shows.

Taichi's tail twitches every now and then, sometimes his eyes would turn into slits for no reason. Koushiro tried to find the exact digimon he turned into but found nothing, much to their confusion and to Taichi's disappointment.

"Hey Gramps," Taichi started. "What is it this time?"

"I have good news and bad news, so which owuld you like to hear first?" Gennai asked calmly.

"I'd like to say leave the good news for last, but..." Jou responded.

"We'll end up disappointed either way, so let's hear the good news first." Yamato suggested.

"Okay. Then I'll start with the good news." Gennai paused momentarily. "The truth is, I found you a new comrade."

"A comrade? You mean a Chosen Child?" Sora asked.

"Yes. There are actually supposed to be eight Chosen Children altogether."

The shocking news made everyone gasp, couldn't believe that there is another one that's like them.

"Hey, so does that mean there's another digimon who's on our side?" Pyocomon asked curiously.

"Yeah, it would." Sora said.

Then Gennai continues. "What's important to know is that if the eight of you aren't together, the distortions of this world won't be straightened out. That also includes the distortions in your world. Understand what I mean?"

"Of course." Taichi said, while Sora nodded in understanding.

"But I wonder what that person is like." Takeru pondered with a smile.

"I hope I can meet our new friend soon!" Mimi cheered excitedly.

"So? Where's this guy? What's the name?" Taichi asked Gennai.

"The name is...Well...um..." The old man trailed off and thought for a second before responding. "I don't know."

Everyone almost stumbled down in disappointment after hearing the old man's answer.

"Gramps!" Taichi yelled.

"I'm sorry. But I do know where the child is located. In Japan."

"Japan?" Taichi wondered and so did others.

"Where is that?" Gabumon asked.

"That's the world where we came from." Koushiro replied.

"But now that means we can't meet that person." Jou said dryly as Mimi let out a disappointed sigh.

"Don't be disappointed." Said Gennai.

Taichi's head slightly tilted to the side as he asked. "Well? What's the bad news?"

"Uh, Vamdemon already knows the information that I've just told you about. He's in the midst of gathering an army to invade Japan and kill the child."

Taichi gasp in horror, his ears slightly drooping. "Vamdemon is going to Japan?" He paused for a moment and thought of something, which Gennai easily noticed.

The old man then turned to Koushiro and said. "I can give you the data you need."

"Data?" Koushiro stared at him, confused.

Gennai slowly raised his hand then pointed his finger towards Taichi. "You're wondering why there's no data of the digimon you turned into, yes?"

Taichi immediately nodded as he straightened himself, gaining more interest in the conversation they are having.

"They're extinct." Gennai calmly puts his hand back behind him. "Only few digimons know this digimon. Many hated them but some...considered them as the saviors. I'll tell you more about it after you defeat Vamdemon--"

"Is there a cure?"

"Hm?" Gennai raised an eyebrow as he look straight at Taichi, who is noticeably shaking.

"Can you turn me back?"

"...I..." Gennai sighed. "...I do not know."

The boy's eyes turned into slits again as he went wide eye after hearing Gennai's unsure answer. His head lowered as he stared down at his paws.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

(Skip ahead to the children talking to Gennai behind Vamdemon's castle.)

"And so, the gate that connects to Japan should be somewhere in the castle." Gennai explained.

"Then, the reason why Vamdemon left Picodevimon to deal with us was because he was busy making preparation to open the gate." Koushiro said.

"That's right."

Sora looked at her friend, who is sitting on a tree, with a frown.

Taichi's been so silent after what Gennai said to him. The others were concerned about their friend, he wasn't acting like himself after he collapse that night. Taichi told them it was nothing but a massive headache, however, but they could easily tell that it was more than that, especially Jou.

The older boy already informed them about it without Taichi knowing.

Being teleported to the Digital World and meeting the digimons was a big surprise for everyone, but their friend suddenly turning into a digimon was very unexpected. On top of that, that digimon he turned into no longer exist and was hated by mostly everyone.

For the first time in their adventure, Taichi felt scared and anxious. What would his parents say when they see him like this? Is Hikari gonna hate him? Is he ever gonna turn back? He don't know. He doesn't know what's gonna happen to him after all of this. Heck, he doesn't even want to know.

"Taichi?"

The boy's ears twitched towards the direction of the voice, but his sight remains focused on his clawed hands.

Taichi tensed when someone pulled his tail. He looked down and saw Sora and Piyomon staring at him with a huge frown glued on her face.

"Agumon and Palmon might come back. We need to get ready." She said in a low but audible voice.

Taichi just gave her a slow nod and jumped down from the branch he is sitting on and went towards the others, who are all giving him a sad stare.

The digimon boy lifted his head up as someone gently placed a hand on his shoulder. He turned and saw Yamato. "You okay?"

Taichi just gave him a small smile and a nod in return. "Yeah, don't worry about me. Vamdemon is our top priority right now."

Normally, Yamato would try to force the truth out of Taichi but seeing how upset he is from what had happened, he couldn't do it. Instead, he just sighed and let go of him. "If you say so." He muttered.

Then just on time, multiple vines lowered down from the castle window. Everyone looked up in relief to see both Agumon and Palmon.

"Palmon!" Mimi exclaimed happily.

"Sorry for the wait!" Palmon shouted from the top.

Taichi washed down his worries away and quickly ran towards the vines Palmon made for them to climb up with the others. "All right!"

Before they could climb up, Gennai warned them. "I won't be able to contact you inside the castle, so yiu're on your own!"

"You can count on us!" Taichi replied as he climbed up with Mimi while the others remained on the ground waiting for their turn.

"Remember, stop Vamdemon's plans and protect your comrade in Japan!"

Now that Taichi and Mimi both made it inside the castle, Palmon quickly draws back down her vines for the others. "Next! Hurry!"

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Inside the castle, it was much more bigger in the inside compared to the outside. It was dark in some parts of the castle and some rooms were only lit up with either candles or the light from outside. There's no doubt that you'll easily get lost in the castle if you don't know where you're going. It was like a giant maze!

The Chosen Children decided to split up so they could cover more grounds. They didn't know if it was a good idea or a bad one...maybe neither.

As Yamato, Takeru, Gabumon and Patamon are walking down the castle grounds, the orange digimon suddenly noticed something strange upon entering another hall.

"Huh?"

Takeru stared at his digimon. "What is it?"

"Something's weird." Patamon said as they saw a torch close by.

"What is?"

A torch that is upside down.

Everyone halt to a stop as they all gasp in shock. "Why!?"

And before they know it, they were walking upside down the whole time!

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Meanwhile, Jou tried picking the lock on a giant door they have stumbled upon, he has been doing this for the past few minutes and Sora, Mimi, Gomamon, Palmon and Pyocomon was having doubts about him unlocking it so easily.

"How is it?" Asked Gomamon.

"It's very sturdy." Jou replied. "That must mean this is a very important room."

Mimi observed it and noticed something. "But doesn't this lock look rusty to you?"

"Yeah." Sora agreed. "Maybe this room just hasn't been used in a long time."

Jou stopped and stared at the big rusty lock for a moment.

"Let's look somewhere else." Pyocomon suggested.

"Okay." Then they went down the halls, but Jou stood still on the same spot, still staring at the lock.

"Let's go, Jou." Said Gomamon.

His partner let out a disappointed sigh. "I was so sure this was the place..." And they followed the others.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

"I think we're lost..." said Taichi as he and Agumon paused for a moment to look around. He tried sniffing out his friend's scent or anything that can help them find what they are looking for but he couldn't catch anything but the castle's bad odor.

"No way..."

"I feel like we'vre passed through here before." He said to Agumon.

"Taichi?" A familiar voice called nearby.

Taichi and Agumon quickly looked down and saw both Koushiro and Tentomon right underneath them.

"Koushiro? You guys were searching below us?" Taichi asked.

Tentomon stopped and looked down. "That's an odd thing to say. You two are the ones who are below us."

"No, it's you guys who are below us!" Agumon exclaimed.

"No, you are!" Koushiro yelled back.

"Hey, hey..." Taichi trailed off.

"W-why?"

Little do they know, it was neither of them.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Noticing that splitting up was only making things more difficult, they decided to regroup and think of a more decent plan to get to the room where Vamdemon is.

"This castle is very strange." Koushiro stated. "The airspace in here must be distorted warped." He gestured at the multiple paths overhead.

"This isn't the first time we've seen this world acting weird." Taichi said.

"But this place is particularly weirder than the rest." Yamato pondered. "Maybe it's because Vamdemon's power is strong."

"Don't say that..." Jou mumbled, feeling uneasy of what Yamato said.

"Huh?" Gomamon's head perked up which caught everyone's attention to him.

"What's wrong?" Jou asked.

"Someone's coming." Was all the digimon said.

A surprised gasp escaped their throats as two figures came walking by from another pathway near them. They ducked down to avoid being seen by any of the enemies then carwfully peaked their heads out a little to see who it is.

"They're getting ready to leave." Yamato stated.

"Then let's follow them." Sora suggested.

"Exactly! Let's go!" Taichi agreed, then they quietly followed the digimons from behind.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

As they went deeper into the castle, Taichi could eventually hear something opening just a few steps away, and the scent...the scent of that Vampire digimon just makes him so frustrated and mad.

_BANG!_

The others might've not heard it but he did, it was a door that just opened. Taichi immediately realized what Vamdemon just accomplished, he then wasted no time and quickly ran down the stairs.

As they all entered, they saw the digimons entering the giant door and Vamdemon, who is gonna enter his carriage.

"Hold it!" Taichi snarled.

Vamdemon turned and saw the Chosen Children running after him, but he only smiled and didn't put much worry about them.

"You won't get away with this!" As if on instinct, Taichi dropped down on all fours as he let out some menacing growls at Vamdemon.

"You're finally here. But it's too late." Vamdemon gestured at the giant door. "Look well upon this historic moment!"

Taichi's mouth dangerously lit up with fire as smoke trailed off behind. "Cut the crap!"

"Unfortunately, I don't have the time right now to concern myself with you."

"Flare Blast!"

But Taichi's attack was easily defected away with no effort at all.

"Picodevimon." Vamdemon called, then the small bat digimon quickly came up to him.

"Sir!"

Vamdemon entered his carriage as he said, "Silence them." Then the door shut tight from any commotion.

"Understood!" Picodevimon bowed then immediately flew towards the Chosen Children with his armies following him, then blocks the children's way.

Taichi growled at the small bat digimon as he bared his teeth and claws at him. "Think you can still win after all the times you've lost?"

"It won't be like last time!" Picodevimon shouted and then turned to look at Nanimon and gave him the green light. "Go get 'em, sensei!"

"You got it!" Nanimon stepped up and opened his arms. "I won't let you pass!"

"Don't get in our way!" Agumon yelled out in frustration.

With one last look at the kids, Vamdemon smirked and entered the door.

"Men! Get them!" Nanimon instructed.

"I didn't want to fight you guys but we're running out of time!" Agumon exclaimed.

"Forgive us, okay?" Palmon said.

"Agumon, evolve! Greymon!"

"Palmon, evolve! Togemon!"

The enemies stepped back in fear as two adult level digimons towered before them.

"Gabumon, evolve! Garurumon!"

"Tentomon, evolve! Kabuterimon!"

"Gomamon, evolve! Ikkakumon!"

Seeing five giant adult digimons, and a dangerous looking Taichi on Greymon's head, standing right in front of them, everyone scattered and ran off to save themselves from the battle that's about to happen.

"H-hey! You guys! Turning tail in front of the enemy is a felony!" Nanimon shouted.

"Who cares! You didn't even feed us!" Numemon cried out as they all retreated.

"We'd rather make a quiet, decent living than die for this!"

"H-hey!" Nanimon tried to persuade all of the digimons that had ran off but his path was blocked off by Kabuterimon.

Realizing that he is no match to all of them, he took out a white flag and waved it. "I surrender!"

"Sensei! You can't do that!" Picodevimon yelled out.

"Shut up!" Nanimon snapped at him. "It's true that no one but the toughest can survive on the battlefield...but you won't survive if being tough is all you got! Running from a fight is also considered as winning! Right?"

"Just go home!" Taichi shouted.

Then Nanimon quickly ran away from the battlefield. "Excuse the intrusion!"

"Now, what are you going to do?" Yamato asked the frustrated Picodevimon.

"T-this isn't fair! It's five againsts one!" Picodevimon cried out.

"Hey, let's get rid of this guy and go already." Takeru suggested.

"I-I can't believe the day has come when you'd say that!" Picodevimon said in disbelief. "Damn it! I've hit rock bottom!" He squealed, then all of the sudden his failure face turned into a whole 180 and attacked. "Pico Darts!"

"Air Shot!"

Picodevimon's mouth hanged open in fear as his darts dropped down in front of him.

"The gate is closing!" Sora yelled.

Taichi jumped down from Greymon's head and perfectly landed on all fours. "Playtime is over! Let's go!"

Then they all ran towards the door without wasting any time.

"Move!" Picodevimon scrambled around as he no longer no what to do.

Suddenly, a white cat jumps right beside the cowering Picodevimon, which made everyone pause on their tracks. "Honestly, I can't stand watching this anymore." She said in a bored tone.

"Another small one showed up. Shoo, shoo! Out of the way. You fon't want to get hurt, do you?" Jou gestured the digimon to move.

But he only made things worse.

"I see you're underestimating me. Watch this."

She leaped all the way up to Greymon and attacked. "Neko kick!"

With just a single kick on Greymon, Kabuterimon and Ikkumon, she managed to make them stumble back.

"She's much stronger than she looks!" Yamato exclaimed.

"Here's my punch!" Togemon came running towards Tailmon to attack her but missed as the cat digimon jumped onto Garurumon's nose, then leaped multiple times to avoide Togemon's punches.

"Now!" Taichi signaled them to run.

"Let's go!"

And they all quickly ran towards the closing door.

Unfortunately, Tailmon took notice of this. "You're not getting away!" The golden ring on her tail glowed brightly then all of the sudden the Devidramon statues came to life.

Two of them faced their digimons while the other one blocks the door.

The kids watched as the Devidramons easily immobilized their digimons in just a second. Then without any warning, the digimon right behind them immediately attacked but Taichi was quick to notice it and tried to counter.

"Blaze Claws!"

But his attacks have no effect on the adult digimon. Devidramon grabbed the small boy and dragged him on the ground then threw him againsts the wall roughly.

"Taichi!"

The dramon grabbed him again and flew up the ceiling then dived straight down with its hand, where Taichi is being held, extended towards the ground.

The digimon boy struggled to get out but Devidramon's grip on him was tightening every second.

"Flare Blast!"

But it was not effective, and was too late to escape.

Blood spat out of his mouth as his back hit the hard ground, creating a big creater because of how much impact was put into it by the dramon.

"TAICHI!"

"That's it! That's it! Get them! Get them!" Picodevimon cheered then used this chance to get away. Unfortunately, Patamon was there to prevent him from entering the door with an Air Shot.

Sora and Yamato tried to go to their injured friend but the two Devidramons was blocking their way, the digimons defeated one Devidramon when Taichi was busy with one, and it took a lot of them to defeat it.

"Damn it! Get out of the way!" Yamato shouted in frustration.

"Taichi!" Greymon wasn't gonna back down anymore after seeing how beaten up his partner is. He tackled one of the Devidramon and gave way for the children to aid their friend.

"Now!"

"Let's go!"

As they were running towards Taichi, the remaining Devidramon landed right in front of them.

"Taichi!" Greymon cried out as he struggled to get out of Devidramon's death grip around his body. The digimon made an attempt to evolve but couldn't. "I-I can't evolve...T-tai...chi..."

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Pain.

That was the only thing he could feel at this moment.

Everything was a blur, he could hear his friends calling him but it was. mumbled. Eventually, he felt cold.

Is this how it ends? They were unable to stop Vamdemon from going to their world and on top of that he's going to die, at least that's what he feels like.

How did he even gotten himself into this mess? All he wanted to do was go to summer camp and have fun like what all the kids normally do. Instead, they all got teleported into the Digital world and almost gotten themselves killed multiple times. To add up all the traumatic events, he turned into a digimon! With no possible cure whatsoever!

If he could laugh at times like this he would, but unfortunately his numb body just wouldn't cooperate. This is what the digimon feels after one hell of a battle, he couldn't imagine the pain they felt afterwards because of how they act so normally, maybe because they've gotten used to it. Now that he got dragged multiple times and got crushed, he felt like hell.

"Taichi!"

His friends are calling.

"Taichi! Please wake up!"

But there was nothing he could do to help. He is one level away from the Devidramons and they even managed to defeat all of their adult level digimon.

"Taichi!!!"

They're starting to fade...

"Taichi! Were coming!"

His body feels so heavy. He just wants to close his eyes and rest.

"No! Hold on!"

But...

"Don't you dare leave us you idiot!"

The other part of him wants to fight and protect his friends from any possible harm.

He felt tired...but he doesn't want to let go yet.

"Please!"

They've come a long way to get here, and now that they're close to their goal some dramons and a cat managed to mess everything up.

So why give up now?

"Taichi!"

They're just a couple steps away. They can make it...if he could just remove the ones who are blocking the path.

He can do it.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

"TAICHI!"

A ray of light shoned upon Taichi, who is slowly struggling to stand up. Everyone was taken aback from the sudden glow and turned their attention to it.

"N-no way..." Koushiro trailed off, couldn't believe what he is seeing. "That's...the light of evolution."

Taichi screamed out as his body got engulf with light, no, it wasn't from pain. It was his battle cry.

He could see a lot of digits and data surrounding him. He didn't know what's happening but he didn't feel scared in any way. Intead, he felt warmth and a huge surge of power flowing in his body.

_'Don't get lost in the evolution...'_ His instincts told him.

Hearing that, he relaxed himself as he close his eyes and let the energy flow into him.

"Chimon, evolve!"

Taichi could feel his body reshaping into something big and strong. He wasn't hurt nor feel any pain in the process, all there was is a soothing energy.

"Ichimon!"

The light disappeared as soon as the evolution finished.

Standing before them is a 10 ft tall mascular humanoid lion. The boy looks the same as his last form but his body became built for fighting type. His arm bands now has three spikes on each of them, eyes more cat like, his usual circle goggles turned into a more menacing looking one, the long side burns turned into a mane like beard, and finally his tail became more fluffier than it normally is.

"Taichi...evolved?" Was all his friends could say.

The newly evolved digimon boy exhaled a few smoke to provoke his enemies, chorused with a deep growl and a snarl every second.

Tailmon tensed as Taichi shot her a deadly glare. 'W-what's this heavy feeling?'

"YOU." Taichi growled, his voice sounding more deeper with a mix of growl behind it.

Everyone shivered on how cold and dangerous it sounded.

Tailmon stuttered and stood her ground. "Attack him!"

The Devidramons launched theirselves straight at Taichi, Crimson Nail now activated and aimed at him.

Taichi let out a loud roar throughout the entire room. Then his body suddenly got engulf with huge set of flames. He crouched down while keeping his eyes on his two targets. "Flame Booster!"

The Devidramon's attack hit directly where Taichi is standing, but soon realized that their enemy was no longer there.

"Pyro Nails!"

As one of the Devidramons disappeared into data Taichi flexed his claws again and aimed at the defenceless digimon near him and successfully exterminated it with just a single attack.

Everyone's mouth hanged open in shock as they watch it unfold right before their eyes.

"I-in less than a second...he managed to defeat two of them?" Koushiro stuttered. "Is this what Gennai means?"

Tailmon suddenly caught off guard as Taichi grabbed her by the neck and squeezed tightly. "Show off." Taichi snarled at her.

Then he threw her across the room but she managed to stop herself with the help of her claws before hitting the wall. She pants as she stood up, slightly shaking. "Look who's talking."

She leaped directly at Taichi and tried kicking him on the face but the big digimon boy caught her leg and threw her on the ground.

Tailmon didn't waste any time as she immediately stood up and punched Taichi on the chest, making him step back from the sudden assault. "All bark and no bite." Tailmon said to him.

Taichi roared as he charge at her with claws and teeth baring dangerously then started to attack her with no mercy.

Tailmon made a lot of effort to try and dodge all of his attacks. She couldn't even make a move just from hyperfocusing on defences instead of her attack. She could sense the immense strenght the digimon has gotten after his evolution and that just made her more nervous about getting hit.

Of course, she knows about the extinct digimon. It was a very unfortunate thing to meet one at this very crucial moment. If that door closes she won't be able to help Vamdemon on his very important plan.

Meanwhile, the others just watch as their newly evolved friend mercilessly attacks Tailmon. They were amazed and confused about Taichi's sudden evolution, they didn't even know it was possible for him to do that.

"Chimon...Ichimon...that must be the name of the digimon Tacihi turned into." Koushiro pondered.

"That's not important right now! He's buying us some time! Let's go!" Yamato exclaimed.

"But what about Taichi?" Sora asked in concern then suddenly cringe when Taichi successfully hit Tailmon with his Pyro Nails, but the cat digimon managed to evade in time before she got hit by the second one.

"Don't worry. I'm sure he'll follow us." Jou reassured her.

Sora's gaze turned to Taichi then at the almost close door, she reluctantly nodded. "Alright."

But before they could even make it halfway to the door, multiple darts missed them by an inch just right in front of them.

"Ah! Ah! You're not getting away that easy!" Picodevimon shot another round of darts straight at them as they children scattered around to avoid getting hit.

Tailmon saw what the childrens are doing in the corner of her eyes. "Oh no you don't!" She scooped a handful of gravel on the ground then threw it at Taichi's face, causing him to roar out in pain as the dust particles entered his eyes.

Tailmon used this chance and quickly ran towards the giant door.

"Huh?" Ikkakumon looked at Taichi then turned to the escaping Tailmon. "Guys! She's running away!"

The other digimons were alerted by this and immediately took action. They tried to tackle her on the ground and attack her with everything they got but Tailmon was able to dodge everything flawlessly and reach the door.

"This has gone for too long." The ring on her tail glowed brightly, soon another two Devidramons awoken from their slumber and blocked the way towards the door.

"Oh no!" The children backed away from the dramons.

"Take care of them!" Tailmon instructed.

The Devidramons raised their hands in the air as it glowed crimson red. However, their attacks were canceled out as the children's digimon immobilized the two dramons by pushing them in the corner with all their might.

"Let's go!" Then they ran towards the closing door.

Tailmon just smirked at them and went inside with Picodevimon. The door is almost close!

"Just a bit more!" Yamato panted and tried to go more faster.

"GRAND FLAME!" The Devidramons were suddenly got engulfed with giant flames and disappeared into data.

The adult digimons turned and saw Taichi running towards the door. "NO!" He roared.

He ran passed everyone as he accelerated more and more...but it wasn't enough.

The door closed.

Taichi skid to a halt then punched the door out of frustration and anger as he let out a roar.

"NO! At this rate, the eight child will be..." He trailed off, unable to say the next word.

The others watch him let out his anger by punching the invincible door. They too felt the same as he does. Looks like their plan had failed.

Suddenly, the ground shook violently as they all heard a lot of dangerous digimons coming their way.

"Let's get out of here!" Koushiro shouted, which the others agreed to and ran away to escape, except for Taichi.

Everyone paused on their tracks and approached the frustrated digimon boy.

"Taichi, let's go! This whole place is collapsing!" Sora yelled out.

Taichi doesn't seem to hear what she said, however, as he continue to punch the concrete wall. Yamato quickly ran up to him and yelled, "Hey! Didn't you hear her!? We have to get out!"

As the blonde tries to grab Taichi's hand, he step back in fear as Taichi snapped at him with a large snarl on his mouth.

"T-taichi...?" Everyone took a step back away in fear from their friend.

The digimon boy soon realized what he had done as he immediately snapped out of his wild trance. "S-sorry! I just thought--" He shook his head and hung his head low in shame. "I'm sorry..."

Even with his apology, they couldn't help but feel slightly tense around him, although they know inside that giant beast is their friend, which really helps them ease their negative thoughts about him.

Sora carefully pulled his hand and told him, "Let's go."

Taichi just nodded slowly. "Right..."


	6. Pursuit! Hurry to Japan!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright so ya'll notice that I didn't change much of the story from the original. The last six chapters were a year old and I was planning on rewriting it but either i got lazy or the scene is just fine the way it's suppose to be. So I wanna point out that starting next chapter there will be some mild changes until the story completely gets rewritten as the story progress. 
> 
> That is all!

The Chosen Children retreated at the back of the castle and called Gennai. They told him about their obvious fail in stopping Vamdemon from going to their own world and also mentioned Taichi's unexpected evolution, which even the old man was quite surprise of.

"I see. That's to bad." Gennai mumbled.

"Just saying 'it's too bad' won't cut it! The eight child will die if we stay here!" Yamato retorted.

"That's not all!" Sora added in a frustrated tone. "If these Digimon ran loose, they'll create massive chaos throughout all of Japan!"

"And I would like to add that Taichi doesn't know how to turn back to his child form!" Agumon exclaimed as he gestured at the tall digimon, whose his partner.

Gennai just hummed calmly, thinking of what he should say to the kids.

"Can't we get the gate open again?" Taichi asked.

"It's possible." Gennai simply answered.

Everyone's frustrations turned into a huge relief.

"How?" Sora asked excitedly.

"I can't simply explain it. You'll also be needing the tools that will help you."

A low annoyed growl emanated from Taichi's throat. "Well, quit wasting time!"

"Very well. Come over to my house so we can get started." Gennai said.

"Your house?" Agumon asked curiously.

But his question was left hanging as Gennai immediately disconnected. That old man always leaves when they needed him the most.

"He disappears again when we need answers." Mimi complained as she placed both hands on her hips.

Then as if on cue, Gennai reappears again. "Take a look around you." He said.

Everyone did what the old man told them to do and looked around the area for anything he's talking about. Then they noticed something from the distance, it was bright and moving back and forth.

"Huh? There!" Patamon exclaimed.

"If you head towards that light you will reach my residence." Gennai said, earning a small nod from Taichi.

"Okay!"

"I'll be waiting." And with that, he disappeared completely.

"All right!" Taichi stretched his arms and legs for a moment before going on all fours then pointed at his back. "We'll get there quicker. Just get on."

"Are you sure?" Jou asked the confident digimon boy, who just nodded immediately.

"I might not turn back soon so I should probably get use to this new form."

Everyone eventually agreed and decided to follow what Taichi suggested for them.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

The ride was definitely not smooth as they thought it would turn out. Taichi almost had a lot close calls of almost hitting either a tree or a giant boulder, and he keeps tripping every minute because of him always stepping on his tail. Well at least his tail doesn't get in the way during fights.

Everyone keeps yelling at him to stop and it would be better if they should just walk but you know how Taichi is, stubborn as always, he always tells them that he got it even when it's already clear that he don't. Though they were actually glad that he's as fast as a cheetah, they arrived at their destination in just 10 minutes, well five if he doesn't keep tripping and almost hitting anything.

The Chosen Children saw nothing but a dead end towards the lake, actually the light came from what seems to be in the lake.

"Wait a second! What's going on here!?" Mimi exclaimed, confuse at what she's seeing.

"Is his house underwater?" Yamsto asked, dumbfounded.

"I see." Koushiro said. "So this is why I couldn't find him during those two months I searched the mountains."

"Anyway, how do we get there?" Jou asked.

Then Gomamon emerged out of the ocean. "I'll go take a look." He said.

Before he could even do it, the water started to bubble and glow brightly. Gomamon sweatdropped when he saw everyone staring at him in curiousity. "I-it's not me!" He exclaimed.

The light glowed even more brightly then shot towards the land they are on. All of the sudden, the water splits up, revealing a stair towards down the lake.

"No way!" Everyone exclaimed in unison.

"Do we use this to go down?" Palmon asked.

"Looks that way." Yamato replied.

Taichi examined the stairs for a moment to check if there is any danger that will come out, but found nothing except for the old man's scent. "All right! Let's go down and take a look!" He suggested, which everyone agreed on and walked down the slippery stairs.

Gomamon blinked as everyone just walked pass him without saying a word. "Wait up guys!"

As they proceed deeper into the path, they were amazed on how well this was made. Fishes are clearly seen in the water wall on either sides. However, they couldn't appreciate much more of it because of hoe focused they are on going down the stairs.

"It's so slippery!" Takeru exclaimed.

"Be careful." Patamon said. Then he gasp as he saw something in the distance. "Look at that!"

It was a house, a regular house, the same as they have in their world.

"Is that it?" Sora asked, looking at the big building.

"I think so." Jou replied.

"Excuse us!" Everyone chorused.

"We're coming in!" Taichi said and they all went inside.

The exterior of the house really does look like the same one in their world. There were lots of similarities here and there, minus the water and fishes around them. It looks warm and cozy though, and it somehow feels safe.

"This place is kind of cool!" Pyocomon said in amazement.

"Really..." Gomamon said.

Then they saw him. Standing on the little bridge is the same old man who's been helping them throughout their journey.

"Gennai?" Koushiro asked curiously, still wondering if it really is him.

The old man turned, still wearing the same expression that he has everytime they meet, though they could sense the relief in his voice. "I see you've made it here safely, children."

Taichi went right beside Koushiro. "Is that really him?"

"Yes."

"Hey, Gramps!" Taichi shouted as he clenched his fist. "There's something I want to ask you!"

"What is it?" Gennai asked calmly.

Taichi crossed his arms and scoffs. "Why didn't you come meet us directly after all this time?"

Gennai puts his hands behind his back and walked down the small bridge then towards the Chosen Children. "I like staying at home." He simply answered.

"Just who are you anyway?" Jou asked.

The old man went up to Taichi and examined him all around.

"A human? Or are you a digimon?" Patamon asked.

Gennai pressed Taichi's paws, which made the boy's claws to extend. Then he pulled Taichi by his mane like beard and gently pulled up his lips to inspect his sharp canines, especially the ones on his lower jaw.

"Neither." He replied as he checked the boy's eyes next.

"What does being a Chosen Children mean?" Mimi asked.

Gennai stopped examining the digimon boy and looked up the orange sky. "It means that you are children who are chosen to save this world and your own."

"But who chose us?" Yamato asked curiously, still looking up as well ad the others.

"Was it you, Gennai?" Sora looked at the old man with a serious expression.

Gennai slowly shook his head and didn't answer her. "Enough questions." He said as he walked up to the house entrance, which the others followed him obediently. "What you need to focus on right now is how to save the eight child. Now, come inside."

Everyone went in except for Taichi who was stopped by Gennai right at the door. "I can't allow you to go inside if you're that big." He said to Taichi.

"Huh?" Taichi blinked. "B-but I don't know how to turn back."

Agumon then ran up to his partner. "It's easy, Taichi. Just relax your body and think about turning back."

Taichi just clicked his tongue in frustration. "Easy for you to say." Which he only got a small shrug from the orange dinosaur with a small chuckle.

"It's not just about thinking of going back to your child form." Koushiro said to him. "You need to throw away the excess data in order to do that. I notice that when digimons evolve, their data increases dramatically."

"How do I do that?"

"I honestly have no idea. It's probably best if you try doing what Agumon advised you to do."

Taichi sighed and slowly nodded. "Fine."

He closed his eyes and took deep breaths as he thinks about his child form. A small growl escaped his lips as he focused more into that thought.

Then unknown to him, his entire body started glowing brightly as his current form turned small. The feeling was soothing and warm just like when he evolved.

As he let out a breath, he opened his eyes and checked his hands. "I-it..." He circled around as he examined himself. "It works! I'm back!"

"Well not entirely, but sure." Koushiro said.

Gennai gestured Taichi to come in his house. "You can go in now."

The digimon boy went inside the house and immediately sat down the table where his friends are at. As Gennai closes the door, the water started to collide again to hide the house in the ocean.

The fishes started swimming right outside Gennai's backyard. It made Takeru and Patamon's eyes sparkle in awe as they watch the fishes swim around. "So pretty~" They said in unison.

"Porgies and flounder? But this lake is fresh water." Jou wondered.

The other side of the door suddenly opened, revealing Gennai. "Those are robots I personally made." A big screen slides down the ceiling, with countries shown on it, as he went up to it. "It can get pretty lonely living by yourself, you know."

"Take a look at this." He said as he gently hit the screen with his fan, then the picture change into a particular country.

"Japan." Koushiro replied.

Gennai hit it again, now getting closer.

"Tokyo, right?" Mimi said.

He hit it again, then a red circle appeared on the screen.

"That's the Nerima district!" Taichi responded, earning a small nod from Gennai.

"This is currently where Vamdemon is located." He stated.

Both Taichi and Yamato suddenly gasp and tense at their seats, which made Taichi look back at him in surprise. "What's wrong?" The digimon boy asked.

"No..." Yamato stuttered. "Nothing serious. You?"

"No, same here." Taichi diverted his eyes towards the screen. "I was just thinking that he's in Hikarigaoka."

"Hikarigaoka?" His friends asked.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

The digimon boy shook his head then turned to Gennai with a serious face. "C'mon! Tell us how to open the gate!" He told Gennai many times now.

Gennai, who is stepping on a ladder looking for something in one of his small cabinets, just gave him a soft look before turning back. "Let's not be hasty."

He jumped down onto the ground after he finally found what he's looking for. "You'll be using these."

Multiple cards were placed on the table, each one of them having a picture of a random digimon. After putting the last card, Gomamon gasp jubilantly at the sight. "There's one of me!"

"And one of me!" Said Agumon as he pointed at his card.

"What are these?" Mimi asked the old man.

"Cards." He simply answered.

Taichi stared at him in annoyance. "Well, we know that!"

Gennai turned around to face them then asked. "Do you remember seeing nine holes in the slate in front of the gate?"

Koushiro placed his fingers on his chin to think and tried to remember what it is. "Um...Yes, there was!"

"You need to place those cards into those wholes."

"But you gave us one card too many." Koushiro said.

"There's one card I'm not sure of that is mixed in." Gennai replied.

"Which hole do we use for each?" Taichi asked.

"Well..." Gennai paced around the front again. "I don't know."

As expected from him. Everyone just lowered their head as they sigh deeply.

"Oh well." Taichi smirked. "We'll just put the cards in random order and go with that."

After saying that, Gennai tackled him into a choke hold and pulled the boy's tail. "You can't do that! If you do, you'll get thrown into a completely different and crazy-looking world!" He shouted at Taichi, who is gasping for air as he tried to escape from the old man.

"Do that many worlds really exist?" Mimi wondered.

"Yes! There's also the danger that you may not be perfectly restored on the other side!"

"What do you mean?"

Gennai let go of Taichi then cleared his throat. "In other words..."

As Gennai explained to them, Mimi can't help but think of a much horrible picture of her and Palmon after entering the gate. "That is COMPLETELY WRONG!" She screamed out and continuously cries out, "No!"

"That's why, unlike Vamdemon who did this by speaking and incantaion, you will need to solve this by your own abilities." Gennai explained as he picked up the cards.

"But there are so many things that are unknown to us." Said Jou.

"Anyway, here's the cards." Gennai handed over the cards to Taichi, who just looked at it in curiosity. "Relax and enjoy yourselves tonight. The enemy won't attack you here."

"Wait, Gennai!"

The old man paused and turned to look at Taichi.

"What about that data you were talking about? How did I turn into a digimon?"

Gennai nodded his head, understanding the boy's concerns. He headed towards the screen again then tapped it with his fan, revealing a picture of a digimon that looks like Taichi.

"As promised, I will explain to you who this digimon is." He pointed his fan towards the digimon on the screen. "This is Chimon, cub digimon. Vaccine type. They may be small but these creatures are ferocious when it comes to fights."

The pictures then switched to the Adult form. "Ichimon, wrestler digimon. Unlike their previous form, Ichimon has a lot of advantage when it comes to strength and speed. They act independently and often gets into a lot of fights. This digimon gets really dangerous when it is mad and being provoked. Using their special move, Grand Flame and Flame Booster, Ichimon can defeat an entire group of digimons in just a minute."

"With Flame Booster and Grand Flame combined...so that's how Taichi was able to defeat those Devidramons." Koushiro said as he snapped his fingers, making the others look at him in bewilderment, so he decided to explain it simply. "Flame Booster can increase the user's entire stats, with it being activated they could possibly be untouchable, and Grand Flame is like a thousand flamethrower being triggered at the same time which can be more powerful with Flame Booster combined."

Gennai nodded. "Right. And here's a fact, Chimon's adult and perfect form are the most powerful ones amongst their type."

Everyone gasp in amazement, except for Taichi, who is looking down on his hands pondering.

"That explains how he defeated those digimons back in the castle effortlessly!" Jou exclaimed.

"But..." Gennai continued. "Not every one of them reaches their perfect level."

Taichi raised his head up, gaining more attention at the new information. "W-why?" He asked mervously.

"Remember when I said they're the most hated digimon?"

Taichi nodded.

"Well, evolving to perfect takes a lot of care and effort, but since Ichimons mostly get obsessed with power...it takes them to a different line of evolution but most of the time they just die before they could even reach that level." Gennai asked as he turned to look at the now terrified Taichi, who is unable to respond to him anymore.

"Seeing a Perfect Vaccine type evolution of Ichimon is rare...really, really rare." The old man shook his head then switched the picture on the screen to Chimon's digivolution line, except that only Chimon and Ichimon were the only visible ones on it.

"Asides from dying, they're such a dangerous individual when it comes to fighting a fellow digimon. It mostly ends in the most cruel way when they get too influenced by power. More dangerously when they fight as a pack." The old man scoffed as he shakes his head. "That brought everyone into a lot of massacre, and caused a war between their own greed for power and the other digimon's will to survive. That's why they had the be put down for the sake of many lives."

Gennai paused before turning off the screen and putting it back up to where it normally is. "Honestly, I've never seen something like this before. You are the first human to have ever change into a digimon. This is a new phenomena to have ever happen." Then he turn around only to see the everyone's shocked faces, especially Taichi.

The boy was terrified, beads of sweat ran down his forehead as his lips trembled in fear. Taichi could sense the eyes staring at him but he didn't care at the moment. All there is in his mind now is a lot of doubts and fear...and...the memory of him forcing Agumon to evolve to SkullGreymon.

If what the old man told him was right, then they have a chance on winning against Vamdemon, but the expectation was low. There is a slight chance of evolving to perfect according to Gennai. But how is he able to evolve? With the crest too? Is that even possible?

"Taichi?"

The boy snapped out of his thoughts when he felt someone touching his hand. He looked at his surroundings and only saw his friend's worried faces.

"Are you alright?" The orange dinosaur asked in full concern, his grip on Taichi's hand slightly tightening.

Taichi shook his head and jerked his hand away. "I'm sorry...I-I just need some air."

"Taichi!" Agumon screamed out as he watch his friend ran to the other room and close the door behind him.

A loud sigh escaped Gennai's mouth. "I knew he wouldn't like it." He walked up towards Koushiro then said, "I'll put in every information you need for him."

"T-thank you." Koushiro replied then averted his eyes towards the door Taichi went into, and so did the others.

Sora's hand curled into a fist and attempts to follow his friend to comfort him, but she was stopped by Yamato.

"I think it's best if we leave him alone for a while." Yamato said in a low voice.

The girl reluctantly nodded then sat back down.

"Don't worry. He'll be fine." Gennai said calmly as he proceeds to enter his own room.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

"I'm not a digimon..." He whispered to hismelf over and over again.

A loud sigh escaped throught Taichi's nostrils as he let his body slide down the wall lazily. He didn't know how long he's been in here but that's one less thing to worry about.

Evolution...

He's been repeating that word in his head for some time now but he still couldn't make the horrifying thought disappear. Especially that time when he almost bit Yamato's head off. He didn't know what's gotten into him that time but if he keeps losing to his senses like that then he might cause a lot of unwanted conflict around everyone, much like....

Skullgreymon...

If he gets too caught up with greed like any other Ichimons then it would be the same situation as the skull digimon, and possibly might cause much more damage to everything and everyone. It's a huge risk yet a huge opportunity to defeat Vamdemon. But why would he bother? Most of their digimons already reached their perfect level. With the enemy outnumbered it would be an easy win.

But this is Vamdemon they're dealing with. Even if they do have the advantage of numbers, that digimon can still turn the tables. He's always full of tricks.

Then there's Tailmon...

That white cat was already too tough to beat for everyone. If he hadn't evolved back at the castle then they would probably be gone and failed their objective by now. They were lucky, but just how long does this luck last?

Taichi shakes his head and groaned in frustration. He reached down and grabbed both of his digivice and crest. He stared at it for a moment, pondering.

"Courage, huh?" He mumbled under his breath.

The boy cleanched his fist then raised up his arms to throw it away out of anger but he wasn't able to and ended up putting it down beside him with a small sigh.

Why is he even chosen to be the courage out of all of them? He never told anyone about it but he was scared everytime they face a powerful enemy. Not because of the opponent but he's scared for his friends...that he might lose them so easily. He's terrified! He couldn't imagine such a tragedy.

And then there's that one time they almost died because of his own recklessness. He felt so guilty until now. That guilt would probably live with him for the rest of his life. That was so dumb of him.

Then here he is in the same situation again, wondering if he should take the risk and evolve to defeat Vamdemon or not.

Who is he kidding, Gennai already confirmed that there's a small chance of him evolving into a vaccine type. The digimon he turned into was already extinct because the other digimons came to finish the job.

Is that how things will turn out again if he evolve like the others? Is everyone gonna abandon him? Maybe.

Why is he even thinking like this? Why would he think they would abandom him by just evolving into a wrong type of digimon? After that Skullgreymon incident they didn't even do anything but say that it wasn't his fault. That it was an accident. Of course...just an accident that left him scarred for the rest of his life.

Even Agumon didn't think it was even his own fault in the first place. The orange dinosaur was scared as he was yet he kept going and managed to evolve to MetalGreymon.

The only guess he had back then was because he was acting selfishly that his partner evolved to that monstrosity. Then it turns out he's right. Digimons evolve depending on how they treat them. That's why it happened.

So now that he thought of it, he couldn't help but wonder if he could evolve perfectly if he gets into the right mind and not lose into power. Ichimons are power hungry, Gennai told them that. He agreed to that though, because when he was Ichimon he got that feeling of hunger, not for food but for power.

The good thing is that his friends were there to snap him out of that trance before he could even tear the place apart.

Maybe it is possible...maybe he could evolve in the way he wanted to.

And maybe...just this once...

Taichi picked up his digivice and crest then slowly stood up. He stared at his crest for a moment. "Just get in the right thought..." He told himself.

He walked up to the door and opened it. Then realized that it was already dark and the others are already asleep.

"Hm?" Taichi looked down and saw Agumon leaning on the wall next to the room he is in, sleeping.

The digimon boy sighed then crouched down right beside his partner and shook him gently.

Agumon groaned then fluttered his eyes open. "Taichi?" The digimon slowly sat up as he rub his eyes.

"Sorry for making you worry, Agumon. But could you do me a favor?"

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

BOOM!

Yamato jolted awake as he frantically look around his surroundings for any danger. "What was that? Huh?"

The blonde quickly stood up in concern. "Gabumon? Gabumon!!"

Because of his shouts, the others awoken from their peaceful slumber. Takeru looked at his older brother and said as he rubbed his eyes. "What's wrong, brother?"

"The digimons are gone!" Yamato exclaimed.

On the corner of his eyes, Jou noticed two beds untouched. He immediately knew who's bed those belong to. "Guys! Taichi and Koushiro are missing too!"

"What!?"

Everyone got out of their comfy bed and quickly checked the other rooms for any signs of their missing friends. Heck, even Gennai wasn't anywhere in the house and that makes them more worried.

As they were all searching each room, another round of explosion emanated right outside of the house. So they all hurried down the backyard only to find their digimons fighting some certain someone.

"Petit Thunder!"

"Magical Fire!"

Taichi sharply maneuvered to avoid the incoming attack then he kicked down the dirt to launch himself up in the air as his claws flickered with flames. "Blaze Claws!"

"Marching Fishes!"

Gomamon's attack successfully hit him and sent him flying down the other side of the wall, but Taichi's reaction time was quick and managed to perfectly land on all fours.

The boy used the wall to give him a little running boost towards the other digimons.

"Poison Ivy!"

Taichi jumped in the air to evade the attack then he balanced himself on the vines and ran towards Palmon. "Blaze--"

But his attack were interrupted as Patamon headbutted him and resulted to him hitting the wall. "Air Shot!"

Taichi let out a small gasp then used his claws to counter Patamon's attack. But the other digimons weren't gonna let him recover. Two familiar figures overshadowed him as they prepared their attack.

Taichi quickly got up on his feet as smoke came out of his fanged mouth. "Flare--"

"Petit--"

"Baby--"

At the same time, all three of them simultaneously released their attack.

"BLAST!"

"FIRE"

"FLAME!"

A huge explosion occured as the attacks collided to each other. Then when it finally died down, Taichi took his chance and tackled Agumon and Gabumon on the ground with his Blaze Claws activated.

He opened his mouth to reveal his glowing mouth, fire threatening to blast the two away.

"STOP!"

The digimons were utterly surprise when Yamato tackled Taichi on the ground unexpectedly while the others went to the digimons to aid them. He tightened his grip on the digimon boy's neck and pinned him down with his other hand and knees.

"What's wrong with you!? Why are you attacking them, huh!?" Yamato shouted.

"We should be asking you that." Gabumon said, making the newcomers to look at him in confusion.

"What do you mean?" Jou asked, perplexed.

Then the kids turned around when they heard a loud sigh coming from the corner of the house. That's where they saw Gennai and Koushiro coming up to them. "It's fine, everyone! They're just sparring!" Koushiro informed them as turn his attention back to his laptop.

"Sparring?" Sora asked.

"Uh, Yamato...you should really let Taichi go. He's suffocating in his own flames." Agumon pointed at his partner.

Yamato looked down and saw Taichi slowly turning blue as smoke comes out of his mouth. He quickly released him and stood back, now wearing an apologetic expression. "S-sorry! We thought you were controlled by something!"

Taichi slowly stood up as he punched his chest to release all the built up fire in his throat then coughed it out. "Jeez! You should've yell first before doing that! Why are you guys awake anyway?"

"Well those explosions you guys are causing are the reason why." Jou explained, earning an "ohh" from Taichi.

"Sorry about that. We'll try not to cause anymore noises." Tentomon said as he landed on the ground.

"Why are you guys even sparring this late?" Yamato asked curiously.

Taichi scratched the back of his head as he chuckle. "We're just preparing for-"

"Heads up!" Gomamon's yell alerted Taichi from the incoming attack that's directed to him, so he quickly dodged and smirked.

"Hey! No fair!" Then he approached the other digimons and started sparring again, leaving Yamato's question hanging.

Mimi puts her hands on her hips and pouts. "Jeez. They should at least take a small nap after this."

"Come on, let's leave them be." Sora said with a smile glued on her face. "They'll eventually tire themselves out."

She then gestured everyone to go back inside the house, which they all agreed to because they're literally too tired to stop them anyway. As they were all about to enter, they paused abruptly when Gennai spoke.

"Taichi wants to take his chance." They all turned to him, now listening attentively. "He believed that balancing both brains and brawn can make him evolve to the way he wanted to. Though even I am not sure if that works but whatever it is he's planning, the end results always turns out good. At least that's what I believe."

Sora's eyes averted to Taichi, who is jumping around to evade all of the attacks. "Taichi..."

Gennai cleared his throat. "You should all rest now. It's a big day tomorrow."

Everyone agreed with a nod then proceeds to enter the house. Sora took one last glance at Taichi and the digimons before closing the door completely.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

"Thanks for the food!" Taichi and Agumon chorused happily.

It was a great meal they had in such a long time! Much better than the fruits they've been eating since they got transported in the Digital World. Now that their stomach are filled and satisfied, their energy has been replenished and ready to go.

As they are all chattering to each other, the door opened and Gennai asked them. "Are you ready?"

"Yes!" Everyone said in unison.

"I've added an adapter to Koushiro's laptop." Gennai fished out the yellow laptop from his back and opened it. "If you insert a Digivice in here, the information of Digimon that its owner has met will be added to the Analyzer." He explained while pointing at the large gap at the top right corner of the keyboard then closed it. "I've also installed several new programs. Take a look at the manual when you have the time."

"Thank you!" Koushiro said.

"It may be tough for you, Chosen Children, but have faith in your abilities."

"The abilities of the Chosen Children, huh?" Jou whined as he rests his face on the table.

"Hey!" Sora placed both of her hands on the table and said, "Have faith!"

Gennai cleared his throat to get their attention again. "Speaking of which..." He turned to the digimon boy. "I have good news and bad news for you. Which one would you like to hear first?"

Taichi was caught off guard by this, he sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck with a small hum. "I might end up getting disappointed anyway, so I guess bad news first."

"Very well then."

Gennai walked up to the big screen that shows a bar that is not yet full and a silhouette of, what seems to be, Taichi.

"I found out that your entire data is slowly changing to a digimon's, meaning that you are not fully a digimon...yet." He pointed at the green bar. "If this reaches a hundred percent, then that means you are stuck like that forever. More importantly, the more you evolve the faster the process gets."

"Wh-what!? But--" Taichi exclaimed but was interrupted by Gennai.

"Of course I can turn you back to a human..." A small sigh of relief escaped Taichi's mouth. "The only problem is, there's something blocking the core of your data."

"What is it?" Koushiro asked curiously, only to recieve a small head shake from Gennai.

"I do not know. I can't seem to bypass it no matter what I do. My guess is that perhaps something or someone tried messing with your data. Do you remember something that had happened to you that might caused this?" Gennai asked Taichi.

The first thing that came into Taichi's mind was that horrible nightmare he had back in the forest. His body shivered at the thought of it. "I-I think that nighmare I had caused this..." He stuttered, his eyes nervously looking down on the floor, unable to keep himself stable.

"Nightmare?" Taichi slowly nodded.

Agumon gently placed his hand on his partner's shoulder as he tries to get a better look of his face, but the boy just keeps looking away from him.

"You never mention having a nightmare before. Why now?" Yamato asked.

"Because..." Taichi paused then slowly raised his head as he continue. "I can still feel him torturing me."

"Who is he?" Mimi asks.

Taichi shook his head. "I don't know. It was dark, I couldn't see anyone, but there is certainly someone with me." The boy paused again, suddenly feeling uncomfortable. "I was drowning, I couldn't breathe. Then I felt his hands pull me deeper down until I could no longer move...and then it happened. The only thing I felt during those times is pain, I can feel myself changing but I couldn't scream, as if I was muted. I wanted it to end so bad...I-I wanted to w-wake up...I-I never wanted to be--"

Taichi was suddenly snapped out of his pained trance as Agumon tackled him into a big hug.

"Taichi! It's alright." The orange dinosaur looks up at his partner with a small frown on his face. "You don't need to tell us if you're uncomfortable talking about it."

"Yeah! Whatever that caused you to change, we can always find a way to turn you back! Right guys?" Takeru said, raising his fist up in the air with a smile glued on his face.

"Right!" His friends cheered.

Taichi's fear faded away, but not all of it. His lips curled into his usual smile as he pat his digimon's head. He lifted his head up and looks at Gennai then decided to continue his explanation.

"Aside from the nightmare, when I was Ichimon, I almost hurt the others without me even realizing what I'm doing." He stared down on his hands. "I have no idea what's gotten into me that time, but all that's in my mind was capturing the enemy."

Gennai nodded in understanding then puts his hands on his back. "As I suspected, your digimon instincts are getting the best of you. You've become power hungry."

Taichi turns around to look at Yamato with an apologetic gaze. "Sorry for almost biting you."

The blonde boy shakes his head. "Likewise. I almost choke you to death last night."

"Huh. Guess we're fair." Taichi said, earning a small nod from him.

Gennai addressed them to turn their attention back to him by just clearing his throat. He opened one of his drawers then grabbed something from it.

"Here's the good news then." He gave the small object to Taichi, only to recieve a puzzled look from the boy. "Wear it on your wrist." He said.

Taichi did what the old man told him to do and wore it on his right wrist. After a boring second, he examined it around and tried shaking it curiously.

"Just press it." Gennai simply instructed.

As Taichi pressed the black bracelet, a loud gasp came out of his friends' lips as he stumbled back in shock on what he's seeing before him.

Right in front of his eyes, is his normal hand! No claws or fur! He checked his body and saw nothing but his pale skin and his normal human attire.

"Taichi...!" Agumon stared at him with wide eyes.

"You're back to normal!" Sora added.

"Not." Gennai walks up to Taichi and stomped onto something behind the boy, causing Taichi to yelp in pain. "It's just a disguise. I figured he would be needing it to blend in with everyone in your world instead of playing dress up. It's not complete yet, however, it might glitch out every once in a while so you better be careful."

Taichi deactivated the device then gently massaged his tail to soothe out the pain.

"You were too distracted of saving the eight child that you forgot how you're gonna hide yourself amongsts your kind."

Taichi averted eye contact from him. "I guess I did..." He activated the devce again and stared at himself in the mirror he borrowed from Mimi. "Thanks for this, Gramps!"

Gennai internally smiled at the sight of how Taichi is purely smiling from happiness. He knew the boy was too upset by his sudden change, and he was glad he could lighten him up even just a little bit. "I'm sorry I can't be of any further use. Now go, children! I wish you luck."

"Okay!"

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

It was only a couple of meters away from Vamdemon's castle until they reach that gate that can transport them to their own world.

Taichi, who is in his digimon form, paused on his tracks and stared up at the giant castle. They're almost at their location. The only problem is the guards around those halls. He went on his way with the others after that.

Loud growls can be heard right behind the door. Taichi peeks at the small crack of the giant metallic door and saw the halls crawling with Devidramons.

"What should we do?" Yamato whipsered to him.

"Want me to take care of it?" Tentomon suggested while gliding up a few meters off the ground.

Taichi turns around to look at Koushiro, who is also giving him a questioning look. The digimom boy nodded his head in agreement and let Tentomon do the work.

"Here I go! Tentomon, evolve! Kabuterimon! Kabuterimon, super evolve! AlturKabuterimon!"

The kids and their digimon hurried down the hallways where the Devidramons are roaming around. The digimons was about to block their pathway throught the room where the gate is but was stopped as AlturKabuterimon entered with an attack.

"Horn Buster!"

The entire castle shook from the powerful attack, rubbles and big chunks of peices of the walls and ceiling falls.

AlturKabuterimon cornered one of the Devidramons againsts the wall with his horns, unfortunately the sudden force only made the castle shake more.

"Now, while he's distracting them!" Koushiro yelled out to them as they all entered the room.

Seeing that everyone made it inside, AlturKabuterimon decided to make it quick. "HORN BUSTER!"

Everyone jumped down and covered themselves as a giant explosion occured right behind them. Koushiro looks back where they came from then saw Motimon bouncing down the stairs and caught him in his hands.

"Motimon!"

"How was I?" Motimon asked his partner.

"I think you fixed the distortions of the airspace in here!" Koushiro proudly replied.

"C'mon, let's move!" Taichi shouted.

After a few flights of going down the stairs, they finally made it down the room. Then there it is, right in the middle of the room is the card slot Gennai told them about.

Taichi took out the cards and stare at it for a moment then back to the slot, looking more confuse everytime he avert his eyes to each of it. He crouched down and decided to place it on the ground in order.

"What's this?" Sora asked curiously.

Taichi pointed at the red cards. "Good guys." Then the other. "Bad guys." And the last one. "Dirty guys."

Jou lifted his glasses up his nose. "You think so? What about small, normal size and big?" He asked.

Yamato scratched his head in confusion with a small sigh. "Let me try." He went up and fixed the cards to what he thinks is the possible answer. "How's this? Weak, so-so and strong. But we still don't know which card is the wrong one."

"It must be where they live! Like land or sea!" Sora guessed as she watch Taichi rearrage the cards again.

"What's wrong?" Motimon ask Koushiro, who is walking up the slate, while the others are busy guessing what is what and which is which.

"Since Vamdemon broke the seal with magic, the pictures on the slate must also have something to do with magic." Koushiro looks down at the card slots. "I've seen these marks from ovcult pages on the internet. The lion and archer are from the twelve zodiac constellations. But the monkey isn't a part of it...Also, these stars..."

"Do you know what they mean?" Motimon asked, now perched onto his partner's shoulder.

"No...But there must be some significance between them..."

Loud rumbles emanated right above them as they could feel the ground slightly shake.

"W-what's that sound?" Takeru asked in concern as he held onto Patamon tightly.

"I don't know." Yamato replied.

"It feels like something awful." Said Mimi.

"I'll go take a look!" Patamon said then flew up the stairs and check whatever is happening right above them.

"What about this?" Taichi asks Sora while pointing at the cards he rearanged again.

Sora hummed and stared at it for a few moments. "Well..."

"It's useless..." Jou said suddenly.

Mimi gasp in bewilderment. "No! Don't say that!"

Jou's glasses slid down his face and said, "Even if we come up with something that might work..." He pushed it up his nose. "There's no guarantee that it's the right one."

"That's true, but..." Yamato muttered.

Then all of the sudden, large chunks of rocks came falling down the stair case, the shaking of the ground is getting more stronger and stronger every second.

"We have trouble!" Patamon cried out as he quickly flew down towards them. "The castle is crumbling!"

"What!?" Taichi exclaimed.

"It might be my fault!" Motimon cried out. "I broke the ceiling earlier!"

"Anyway, all of the passages are blocked!" Patamon added.

"So now we can't turn back..." Yamato said.

"That's not all!" Sora exclaimed alarmingly. "This place will start breaking down soon too!"

Another round of quakes emanated right above them and some sounds of rocks falling down, causing the children's anxiety rise.

"Taichi."

The digimon boy stared at Jou with a confuse expression on his face. "What?"

"I'll let you handle this." Jou said in full confidence.

"W-what's this all of the sudden?" Taichi stuttered, getting more confuse of what he's saying.

"I'm not saying I don't want the responsibility." Jou started. "It's because I believe in you."

Taichi's head tilted to the side, perplexed, as his left ear droops down.

"Me, too!" Yamato stepped up as he puts his hands on his hips. "In times like this, we should follow the leader's decision."

"Hey, hey! Since when did I become a leader!?" Taichi exclaimed.

"When you disappeared, all of us fell apart." Yamato grabs Taichi by the shoulder and straight up said to his face. "You were the one who brought us back together again!"

Taichi raised a brow. "That was just...by coincidence..."

"Who cares about that!? Do something to take me back home!" Mimi screamed, her head lowered and hands shaking. Sora tried to scold her for her choice of words but stopped herself as Mimi suddenly lifted her head up with her tongue sticking out playfully. "...I've been whining like that all this time, but that's not how it works. I won't speak selfishly anymore!"

"That's right!" Sora said as she looks at Taichi with hopeful eyes. "If we don't change ourselves, nothing else will!"

"That's why I'll place my trust in my friends!" Jou said.

"You guys..." The boy couldn't believe what he's hearing right now. It was that kind of fulfilling tinge in his emotions that was resonating in himself, yet he couldn't help but feel too overwhelmed by this.

 **'As if they'll accept you like that.'** That voice...from his nightmare.

This caused Taichi to plant another doubt in his mind. He lowered his head as he averted eye contact from his friends. "But...I'm not the same Taichi you guys always knew..." He pressed the bracelet on his wrist and changed his appearance to what he used to look like, his human self then back to his current appearance, his digimon self.

"Hey..." Sora gently took his hands and made him look up to her smiling face. "Don't say that."

Yamato and Takeru placed their hands on Taichi's hand, both looking at him with soft eyes. "It doesn't matter what you look like." Said Yamato.

"No matter how fluffy you are, you're still you!" Takeru grinned.

Mimi gently puts her hands down onto his. "We can't judge you for who you are just by appearance."

Jou did the same next. "What matters is who you really are in the inside."

Koushiro puts his hand down onto the others'. "We promise you, Taichi. We'll get through this."

"Guys..."

His friends removed their hands from Taichi's then simultaneously pressed the bracelet on his wrist that made him shift to his human form (well, disguise)

Taichi suddenly felt someone hug his leg from the side, then saw Agumon looking up to him with a huge grin on his face. "Digimon...Human...It doesn't matter. You're still my partner, and nothing can change that."

"Agumon..."

The other digimons walked up to him as well. "It takes a lot of courage to accept yourself for what you have become..." Motimon and Gabumon said to him.

"But no matter how many times you change physically..." Palmon and Gomamon smiled.

"It will never change you in the inside." Piyomon and Patamon said lastly.

The sorrow in him faded and was replaced by the burning light of courage. He lifted his head up high and stood tall on his feet with a huge smile on his face. "Okay!"

Slowly, he went towards the door and turned off the bracelet. "I want to make sure of this one more time. Will you guys really follow my decision?" He asked, his back turned from them.

"Yeah." Everyone nodded.

"Okay! Then I've decided!" He turns around to look at the child of knowledge. "Koushiro! I want you to choose!"

Koushiro tensed at the sudden call of his name as he walks up. "M-me!? B-but..."

"If that's what Taichi decided, then I think it's a good idea." Said Mimi.

"We're counting on you, Koushiro!" Yamato told him.

"But...if I'm wrong..."

"No one will blame you." Jou said.

"We trust you." Sora said.

With his friend's cheers and trust that was placed to him, his doubts and fear disappeared.

"What they said." Taichi grinned.

Then he walks up to the slates with Motimon. "Well then."

"Koushiro, maybe you'll figure something out in your laptop." Motimon suggested.

"With my laptop?" He took out the laptop out of its bag and started typing profusely. "If I had access to the internet here, I would be able to ask people who know more about the occult..."

As he punches every button on his laptop, multiple pictures of different digimon pops out of the screen. Then he suddenly notice something and decided to put up Kentarumon and Leomon's image. "Then...the monkey is..."

Then Etemon's picture came up in the screen. "This is it! But what does it mean?"

Suddenly, he remembers what Gennai told him that late night when they were watching the others spar.

'Digimons are further classified by the attributes, Data, Virus and Vaccine.'

"Attributes!" Koushiro pressed a few buttons and then the digimon's images shows their information. "Who here has met Digitamamon and TonosamaGeckomon?" He asks.

"Uh, me!" Jou said.

"Give me your Digivice!"

Jou did what he said and handed over his digivice to him. As Koushiro recieves it, he quickly placed it onto the new space that was on the top right corner of the keyboard then TonosamaGeckomon's data came up. "Maybe..."

"Did you figure it out?" Taichi asked curiously.

"Let me explain."

Everyone crouched down to see what Koushiro was drawing on the ground, then saw the same mark it has on the slate.

"Listen closely. Take a look at this. The lion, the archer and the monkey respectively represent Leomon, Kentarumon and Etemon. Each of these have a different attribute. In other words, Vaccine, Data and Virus. What I'd like to point out next are the number of stars. From top to bottom, they mean Child, Adult and Perfect. If you put the cards in the appropriate places..."

Then he placed the cards in their own respective order, except that two cards are on the same plate.

"It's a perfect fit!" Jou exclaimed.

"That's amazing, Koushiro!" Sora told him in amazement.

"But there are two here." He pointed at the cards of Gomamon and Agumon. "Either of them could be the wrong one...but I can't tell. I'm sorry." He looks up to Taichi with an apologetic gaze. "I couldn't answer your expectations."

Jou straightened himself and smiled at him. "What are you talking about? You did great!" Then gave Koushiro a round of applause with the others.

Koushiro's lips curled into a smile. "You guys..."

"You should decide on the rest, Taichi." Sora said.

"Okay. You were a big help, Koushiro. Thanks." Taichi told him.

Palmon suddenly stops clapping with them as she notice some rubbles from the ceiling fell. Everyone also saw this before looking up, only to see dozens of spider looking digimons coming at them.

"Who's that!?" Yamato shouted alarmingly.

"I'll have his data in a minute!" Koushiro quickly types in his laptop until he finally see the digimon they are facing right now. "Dokugumon. A cursed digimon whose entire bod is made from computer virus. His special attack, Stinger Pollation, is released from his sharp fangs."

"Anyone who damages Vamdemon's castle will pay with their lives." The giant Dokugumon threatened them before multiple digimons launched themselves towards the kids.

With a huge burst of light, their digimons evolve.

"Gomamon, evolve! Ikkakumon!"

"Palmon, evolve! Togemon!"

"Gabumon, evolve! Garurumon!"

Garurumon leaped and blasted the enemy digimons with his signature move. "Fox Fire!"

"I'll help--" Before Taichi could even jump into battle with the others, Koushiro pulled him by his tail and showed him his laptop.

"You'll only make the process quicker. Don't evolve, Taichi." He warned him. "We have to focus on opening that gate."

Taichi internally slaps himself as he shook his head. "Right, right. I forgot."

"Hurry up while we still can!" Agumon exclaimed.

The digimon boy quickly ran up towards the slate then began putting all the cards in its appropriate slots.

"Chiku-Chiku Bang Bang!"

"Harpoon Vulcan!"

After defeating some Dokugumons, another round of them started coming down again, towards Sora. As Pyocomon heard her partner's loud scream, she didn't waste any second and evolves.

"Pyocomon, evolve! Piyomon!"

Sora looks up in relief. "Piyomon!"

"Magical Fire!"

Meanwhile, Taichi is finally in his last two cards; Gomamon and Agumon. There is only one slot left but two cards. He doesn't know which one is the right card. "Which one is it? Agumon or Gomamon?"

"Taichi, hurry!" Mimi cried out.

"It doesn't matter which one!" Jou exclaimed.

"I won't let you get away!" Dokugumon screamed before trapping the digimons in a web and lifting them all up. "Stinger Pollation!"

A poisonous purple mist covered Ikkakumon, Togemon and Garurumon's body as the web tightens around them. "I'm turning numb!" Togemon cried out.

"The children are next!" Dokugumon hissed.

"Gaururmon!" "You can do it!" Yamato and Sora shouted.

Then Yamato's crest suddenly bursted with light as it activated and caused Gaururmon to evolve further.

"Gaururmon, super evolve! WereGarurumon!"

With just a single swipe, the webs that's holding Ikkakumon and Togemon captive broke easily. "Yamato!"

WereGarurumon grunts as he tries to prevent Dokugumon from coming closer yo his partner by holding him down. Both Ikkakumon and Togemon are no longer in battle as they reverted back to their Child form.

"Taichi!"

"Are you still choosing!?"

"Pick one!"

His friends yelled at him in distress.

"All right! I've got it!" He slammed down the cards backward and chose the on the the right, flipping it up it shows Gomamon's picture. "Open the gate, Gomamon!"

"Please!"

"Open!"

After a few seconds pass, the giant gate opened.

"It opening!" Sora said.

"All right!" Takeru cheered.

"Let's go!" Taichi shouted before running towards the light inside it with the others following him behind.

Yamato turns around and informed the struggling WereGarurumon. "We've got to go too!"

Dolugumon's eyes started flickering blood red. "I'll drag you down with me to hell!"

However, the spider didgimon was too late to do anything as WereGarurumon completely destroyed him into data with Kaiser Nail before reverting back to Tsunomon.

"Thank you, Tsunomon." Yamato said to his digimon in his arms. "Now, let's go!" Then jumped in the gate before it closed shut.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

The older blonde groaned as he slowly opened his eyes and saw trees and snow everywhere around him. "T-this is..."

"Japan?" Takeru sat up and pans his head around their surrounding.

"This shrine..." Jou stared up at the awfully familiar building right next to where they presumably landed. "We're in the campsite! We made it back!" He said in relief.

Mimi on the other hand, couldn't help but tear up at the sight

"This is where we left for the digimon world..." Sora muttered before gasping as she suddenly realize something. "Where are our digimon and Taichi?"

As soon as she said that, Taichi came out of the corner right behind the shrine with a huge frown on his face as he stares down on his clawed hands. "I thought it was just a dream... a nightmare. It's not." He whispered to himself.

"Taichi."

The digimon boy lifted his head up and smiled at Sora. "Hey! Sorry, I got lost in thought for a second."

"Sora!" A familiar voice called out, and then multiple small figures showed up right behind them.

"Looks like you're all awake!" Palmon said.

"Where were you guys?" Taichi asks them.

Then each one of them suddenly brings out bushes of berries on their backs. "Looking for food!" Gomamon grinned.

Jou chuckled. "This is Japan, so you don't need to eat that stuff anymore!"

"You'll be able to eat nicer things." Mimi said while wiping her tears.

"Welcome back!"

"We're home!"

"Taichi?" Agumon gently tugged his tail to get his partner's attention. "Why didn't you choose my card?"

"Your card?" Taichi chuckled sheepishly. "Oh, uh, I wanted to keep it as a souvenir."

"Really?" The digimon dumbfounded.

"A-anyway!" Taichi turns at his friends. "We should start looking for the eighth child!"

"Yeah! Vamdemon must have already made his move." Yamato said.

"Hikarigaoka." Taichi muttered. "I'm sure that's where the eighth child is! Let's find the child before they do and save them!"

"Yeah!"


	7. Clash with Mammon in Hikarigaoka!

"You don't think Vamdemon already found the eighth child, do you?" Sora asked everyone.

"According to my calculations," Koushiro raised a finger. "Not even a minute should have passed between Vamdemon's arrival in Hikarigaoka and our appearance here. The flow of time between the two worlds is different."

"The problem is how we get to Hikarigaoka." Yamato stated while carrying Tsunomon in his arms. "It's pretty far from here.

Jou then suddenly slides in the conversation, sounding confuse. "But is today really the same day we were in camp? We stayed for months jn the other world."

"That's true..." Mimi sighs. "No matter how different the flow of time may be, we don't know for sure."

"I'll go take a look around the area! We shouldn't have taken up that much time!" After she said that, Taichi quickly ran near the edge of the stairs on all fours to check if what this time whatsoever is true. He sat down, somewhat cat-like, and scouts the area.

Taichi's ears perked up when he heard Koushiro told him something. "Taichi, you should really turn on that device. People might see you."

"Right~" The boy playfully saluted and did what he was asked to do. With just a single press of a button, his entire body changed into his human form. He stood up straight then stared at his 'human' hands.

Though he can still feel the tail, teeth and all of the things that changed under all these disguise. It's like hiding in a sheet of blanket trying to pretend like a ghost.

Taichi looks behind him as he heard some footsteps and saw everyone running down towards him, then the orange dinosaur accidentally tripped on his way down but Taichi caught him safely. "Agumon! You don't all have to come!" He told them in a gentle voice.

"But still..." Mimi trailed off.

"I'm going as camp group leader!" Jou stated.

"We're all curious about what could have happened while we were gone." Koushiro told him.

"But how do we explain it if someone saw these guys?" Taichi asks, mentioning the digimons.

"Yagami!"

The boy tensed as a familiar voice calls him from behind. As he turns around, he saw his teacher running towards them. "Teacher!"

"It's Mr. Fujuyama!" Sora exclaimed.

"Teacher!" Taichi calls out as he approach the older men then suddenly fell on his rear when his teacher unexpectedly yelled at him.

"You idiot! Why are you loitering around here and not clearing out your things?"

"U-um...well...I-I...." Taichi stuttered, unknown what to tell his teacher.

"What do you mean clearing out?" Agumon suddenly spoke, which Taichi immediately covers his mouth in panic, small mumbles can still be heard from Agumon.

"We can't stay camping here in this snow, of course! Everyone else is getting ready to go home." Fujiyama told him, who probably thought it was Taichi who asked him that.

Taichi awkwardly smiled at him as he slowly stood up on his feet while carrying Agumon on his arms. He was quite heavy though, but for the sake of his teacher not finding out he must keep his digimon from talking or making any movements otherwise it's gonna be another new problem.

"O-oh yeah!" Taichi chuckled sheepishly.

"What are those filthy things you're holding?" Fujiyama placed his hands on his hips and glared at him sternly. "Are those toys?"

Taichi steps back with some nervous laughtet when his teacher approached him. "Y-yes, that's right!"

Unfortunately, the digimons didn't like what the teacher called them.

"Who are you calling filthy?" Motimon glared at the older men and was about to tackle him, thankfully Koushiro held him in place and covers his mouth. "You can't talk!" Koushiro whisper-yell at him.

"Pretend you're stuffed animals." Yamato told his struggling Tsunomon, hand also shutting his digimon's mouth from talking.

"T-these are...uh...plushies!" Taichi grinned anxiously.

"I can see that." His teacher said.

"S-someone threw them out here and we found them!" Mimi blurted out.

"Y-yeah, that's it!" Jou agreed to her with a nod. "They were in a remote region deep within the mountains where people never pass through! We went through lots and lots of trouble before we ginally got them!"

"How did you even find them in the first place if they were in an area that people don't go through?" Fujiyama's question caught him off guard, and now Jou wanted to slap himself silly for saying that.

Thankfully Taichi got him covered. "Th-that just tells you what a difficult place they were in!" Then he turns around to face his awkwardly nervous friends. "Right, guys?"

"Right!"

He turns back to his teacher and grinned. "S-see? You remember that my little sister Hikari wasn't able to come, right? I thought I'd give this to her as a souvernir. She likes this kinds of stuff." Then he suddenly felt something building up in his throat.

"Oh yeah, she had a cold, didn't she?" Fujiyama asked.

"But she's all better now. There's nothing to worry about." Taichi quickly replied. All of the sudden, a loud purr escaped his throat unexpectedly. Agumon tensed as he felt his partner's chest vibrating, his eyes darted up towards Taichi, who immediately slaps his hand around his mouth tightly.

"What was that?" His teacher was obviously as surprised as everyone else from the weird sound coming from Taichi.

The digimon boy swallowed a lump in his throat to try and make himself stop from purring, but it only seems to be getting worse. "O-oh? That? T-that's just...uh..." He tried to think of a reason to bail himself out of this situation, but he couldn't think of anything because of how loud his purrs are getting. "I-it's..."

Sora chuckled and placed an arm around Taichi's shoulder and told Fujiyama, "He's hungry! Yeah, Taichi haven't eaten anything this morning, that's why his stomach's growling!"

"Is that so?" Fujiyama raised a brow suspiciously, and earn a couple of nod from the kids. He sighs and looks at Taichi. "You always need to eat a lot of food, especially in the morning."

Taichi gave him a toothy grin. "Right!"

"Well, after you've all finished gathering your bags, meet up at the parking lot."

"Okay!"

"Don't be long about it!" Fujiyama exclaimed as he faded into distance.

After their teacher is finally out of sight, Taichi dropped Agumon on the ground as he groaned and turn off the device. "Thanks, Sora. I don't know why I suddenly did that."

"Well you are a cub digimon, cats doesn't just purr when they're happy or delighted, they also purr when they're anxious because it helps comfort them." Koushiro explained, earning a loud sigh from him.

"Well that doesn't comfort me at all!" Taichi threw his arm up then placed it on his throat. "Stop it!"

A hand suddenly started petting his fluffy hair and hugged him tightly. "Aww! You're like a big cat!" It was Mimi. "Who's a good kitty?"

"Not again! Mimi!"

Everyone just laugh and watch as Taichi gets trapped into Mimi's petting parade. He squirmed around to try and get away but he stopped abruptly when his tail got stepped on by her.

"Anyway, how do we get to Hikarigaoka?" Agumon asked, still not taking his eyes off of Taichi.

"I-I've...got a plan..." Taichi whimpered as Mimi's hug tightened around him.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

The parking lot has a lot of people wandering around, mostly childrens their age. The buses are already lined up, ready to leave and send everyone home. It's gonna be diffucult to sneak in the digimons with that many kids in the bus.

"Listen up." Taichi started, who is now in his human disguise, while walking towards the buses with the others behind him. "Don't ever open your mouths in front of the other humans, got it?" He earned a small nod from Agumon.

"We got it." Gomamon replied.

"We just need to pretend to be dolls, right?" Patamon said dramatically while Gomamon just sweatdropped at her.

As Taichi and Agumon peeked out the bush, the dinosaur digimon gasp in amazement when he saw the kids around the area. "Whoa, Taichi!"

But his mouth was quickly shut as Taichi slaps his hand on him. "I just told you not to talk!"

"But there are so many children!"

"I didn't know there could be so many human children!" Piyomon said in awe.

Sora chuckled whole heartedly. "It's too early for you to be surprised just by this. There are thousands of more children all throughout the world. No, make that millions!"

Sora recieved gasps of shock from the digimons. "There are millions of Sora!?" Piyomon exclaimed, making her partner to imagine a million clones of herself, which she didn't take really nicely.

"There's only one of me!" A tick mark appeared on Sora's forehead.

"When you go to the city, you'll see tons more adults and childrens too!" Takeru told Patamon happily, earning a small gasp from his partner and Tsunomon.

Meanwhile, at the corner of her eyes, Mimi saw someone very familiar to her. It was a girl, who is talking to her other classmates with her back turned to Mimi. "Mi-chan!" Mimi shouted as she ran towards her friend, pushing Palmon in the process and landed face first on the ground.

"Ow!"

"I've miss you!" Her friend just stared at her in confusion.

"But I was with you earlier." Said the girl.

"What's the matter?" A brunette girl came up to them.

"No idea."

The girl was suddenly tackled into a huge bear hug by Mimi. "Taoko! How are you?" She chuckled happily.

"Hey, Mimi." The two girls sweatdropped, still confuse by what their friend is talking about.

"Oh, Mimi..." Palmon grumbled.

Koushiro and Taichi watched Mimi from afar with their digimons. "I keep telling her that time hasn't passed here, but she still doesn't listen." Taichi muttered.

Koushiro turned to him calmly. "I understand how you feel, but we need to focus on how to get to Hikarigaoka quickly."

Taichi grinned. "All right." He approached his teacher, who is talking to the conductor, while carrying Agumon in his arms. "Sensei! Fujiyama-sensei! Could you drop us off somewhere along the way?"

"Drop you off?" Fujiyama placed both hands on his hips and looks at him suspiciously. "Of course not! I have a responsibility to make sure all of you get back to your homes!"

"Oh c'mon, don't say that!" Taichi frowned. "Please! You just have to take us near the housing complex in Hikarigaoka!"

"Hikarigaoka? Why there?"

"U-um, well...I used to live there! I just felt like seeing it again!"

Then his friends came up, minus Mimi and Palmon, right behind him to help convince the teacher. "Please!" They chorused.

The teacher went up to them with a questioning expression. "You guys too?"

"Yes!"

"Hikarigaoka is actually pretty close to the road we're taking." The confuductor suddenly said. He puts his hand on his chin and checked the list carefully. "When we go on the Kan-etsu Expressway and intercharge to the Tokyo Gaikan, we'll be passing throagh Ooizumi. That place is within walking distance to Hikarigaoka.

Everyone looks at each other with a smile when they saw their opportunity. Taichi went up to the conductor and asked, "Great, then could you drop us off there, mister?"

"Hey!" Fujiyama exclaimed. "I haven't given you my permission yet!"

"Please, Sensei!" Yamato said, a frown glued onto both his and Takeru's faces. "We really want to see the place where our family lived happily together, before out parents divorced!"

Takeru sniffled then dramatically buried his face into Yamato's clothes. "Big brother!"

"Takeru!" Oh course, Yamato hugs him back and wore an exaggerated expression on his face.

"Please, Sensei!" Jou went up to Fujiyama. "Let us off at Hikarigaoka! I'll be responsible for escorting them home later!" He said in full determination.

Fujiyama crossed his arms and sighed. "Well, I guess it'll be okay if a sixth grader like you is with them, Kido. Make sure to call your parents and let them know about this."

"Okay!" Jou and Taichi bowed their heads respectfully at him. "Thank you!"

"Okay, okay..." Fujiyama grumbled before going off to the others with the conductor trailing behind him.

Once they were out of sight, Taichi grinned and jumped in happiness. "Yahoo!" His gaze then turns to Yamato and Takeru. "Hey, how long are you two gonna keep that up?"

Both brother chuckled in success and let go of each other.

"What's going on?" Jou asked in comfusion.

"It didn't seemed like he'd let us go unless we pulled out some waterworks." Yamato replied.

Jou dumbfounded, his glasses slightly slid off his nose. "So it was all an act?" He pulled it up and told Yamato. "I was desperate to get Sensei's approval because I thought it was true!"

"Now, now!" Taichi approached him. "Things worked out, so let's forget about it."

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

"Is that cool?"

"Right?"

Mimi chuckled as she and her other friends went inside the bus, Palmon being completely forgotten by her partner right outside.

"Oh, Mimi's already forgotten about me!" She exclaimed. The plant digimon stood up to follow Mimi in the bus with a loud yell. "Wait for me!"

Luckily, Koushiro and Sora was there to prevent her from gaining any attention from the people around as they both slap they hands on her mouth.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Palmon, who is hiding in the luggage racks with the other digimons, peeked out of the bags to get a better look of her partner. Mimi was surrounded by her human friends, either cheering on something or being mesmerized by what Mimi is telling them. It's as if she already forgot that Palmon was in the moving bus with her.

At Koushiro's seat, his laptop is resting on his lap while Motimon just watched him type on it profusely. "It's all right." He said. "It's still working properly in this world."

"That's great." Taichi responded, while standing up in the middle of the bus with both of his hands holding onto the chairs just in case the bus stops.

"The Digivice is also working." Sora informed them as the small device beeps.

However, the loud sound coming from it caught their teacher's attention. "What are those things? Is that all the rage among kids these days?"

Jou raised a hand up nervously. "No, that's not really...!"

"Let me have a look." Fujiyama told them calmly.

Taichi tensed and tried to talk his teacher out of it. "Uhhh...you can't-" But Fujiyama just shoved him away.

"Don't be stingy." He extended a hand out to Sora. "After all, I'm letting you guys off at Hikarigaoka."

Sora grinned and gave him the Digivice. "Here."

"That's good manners you've got there, Takenouchi. You're an obedient girl unlike some other kid I know." He told her, earning a scoff from the girl.

Hearing a low purr from his friend, Koushiro looks at Taichi and told him, "It's okay to just let him take a look at it."

"I felt like we were being attacked by an evil digimon or something." Taichi deadpanned.

Koushiro raised a brow. "Fujiyama-sensei is an evil digimon?"

Taichi smirked mischieviously and whipered at Koushiro's ear. "Yeah, he's pure evil! I mean, when you forget your homework he snares you with his tickle attack."

A hand was gently placed on his shoulders as Taichi tensed when he heard his teacher from behind. "I heard that last part." Then tickled Taichi on his sides as the boy holds back in his laughter.

Everyone in the bus laughed at the scene happening right before them.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

The Chosen Children waved goodbye to the bus as it slowly fades into distance. Getting to Hikarigaoka was a success, all they have to do is find the eighth child before Vamdemon does.

"Is that the Hikarigaoka housing complex?" Agumon asked in awe while pointing at the giant building from afar.

"Yep!" Taichi nodded.

"Wow! You used to live in that big castle, Sora?" Piyomon asked, sparks of amazement can be seen in her eyes.

"It's not a castle." Sora replied. "It's divided into smaller rooms inside and a lot of people live there."

Piyomon turns around to look at her partner. "Did you live in Hikarigaoka, too, Sora?"

"Yep." She responded with a small nod.

"Sora and I were in the same class." Taichi said. "Dai-san Elementary School, Class 1-2."

"I was in Dai-yon Elementary School." Yamato chirped in.

"T-then..." Jou stuttered, looking at Yamato. "That means you _weren't_ lying in order to trick the teacher?"

"It's true that we lived in Hikarigaoka." Yamato added.

"Yeah." Takeru nodded. "I remember a little of it."

"I went to Dai-go Elementary School here." Jou said.

"I lived here during kindergarten." Said Mimi.

"So did I!" Koushiro joined in. "But it was only for a little while."

"Then that means all of us onced lived in Hikarigaoka." Taichi said in realization.

"This can't be a mere coincidence." Koushiro muttered.

"Yeah..."

They decided to drop the conversation for a moment as they all decided to keep moving and walk down a few miles in the street. Either looking for the eighth child or just admiring everything in their own world since they have really missed everything so much. Eventually, they stop at the front of a convinence store.

"This place is familiar." Taichi muttered. "I often come here to buy candy and juice."

"I used to come here too!" Mimi said.

"It sure brings back memories!" Jou exclaimed happily.

"Takeru." Yamato looks at his little brother with a small smile. "You may not remember, but we used to play around here a lot."

"But I do feel like I knew this place." Takeru looks up at the store right in front of him, a small tinge of familiarity was in his mind.

"How long did you lived in Hikarigaoka, Koushiro?" Sora asked the Child of Knowledge in curiousity.

"I don't think I've even stayed here for a year..." Koushiro replied. "Probably a couple of months."

"That's pretty short." Taichi told him. Why is that?"

Koushiro jumps down from the rail he is sitting down. "I don't know."

"I can answer that question for you!" Jou chuckled.

"You can, Jou?" Sora wondered.

"But you don't know Koushiro at all back then." Taichi said.

"Even if I did, I still have a good idea of what happened." He raised a finger up and excplained it with full confidence. "To make a long story short, the reason why Koushiro's family moved was because of a terrorist bombing!"

A few gasp was heard from some of his friends. "A terrorist..." Sora said in disbelief.

"Bombing?" Koushiro raised a brow curiously.

"You guys may not remember this, but there was a terrorist bombing in Hikarigaoka four years ago." Jou explained then started pacing back and forth. "They still haven't found the criminal, I think. My parents said they didn't want to live here in such a dangerous place, so we moved to Odaiba."

"That's right!" Sora exclaimed when she finally remembered. "It was the same with my family. I remember they mentioned something about a bomb!"

Taichi hummed then slowly lifted his head up. "Now that you mention it, I feel like that's what happened."

Their conversation was cut short as multiple police cars drove pass them with their sirens wailing out loud, making Taichi slightly flinch at it.

"What's that?" Mimi asked while pointing at the cars.

Looking at the distance, Taichi could see a smoke from afar, and there was a faint scent of a digimon. It wasn't Vamdemon though but a different one. The smell is somehow making his mind clouded with savage ideas.

**_'Courage...'_ **

The boy gasp as he felt the bone chilling voice breath right behind him. He let out a loud groan and clutched his head tightly as pain shot through his entire body, causing everyone to turn their attention to him. He heard a loud sinister laugh in his mind.

**_'We've finally meet, Chosen Child. What do you say we have a little fun today?'_ **

Trembling in his spot, he gritted his teeth as he tried to fight the unknown force that is pushing his consciousness out of his body. His sight started turning dark, the surroundings and people around him turning more shadow like. Looking at the dark creatures by his side, his mouth curled into a dangerous snarl when he somehow felt scared by it.

"Taichi? What are you doing?" Takeru asked after Taichi changed appeance to his digimon form.

But it doesn't seem like the boy heard what he said as he went down on his hands and feet, his eyes flickering between black and orange.

**_'Let's go.'_ **

"Chimon, evolve."

"Taichi, wait--" Koushiro tried to stop him but he was too late.

"Ichimon." The big digimon anmounce in an unusual monotone voice.

Flames brusts out of his entire body as he let out a monstrous roar, then dashed towards where the police are heading, leaving his friends behind in bewilderment.

"What's wrong with him? Where is he going?" Yamato asked as he just stare at the trails of flames Taichi left.

"This is bad! If the police saw him he's gonna be in big trouble for sure!" Jou exclaimed in concern.

"Let's go!" Agumon shouted, now looking serious, then ran towards where his partner went to. The others followed him from behind.

They followed the burning trail Taichi left behind, some of it was spreading around the nearest park, luckily the firefighters were already trying to put it out.

Eventually, they finally found where Taichi went. Right in front of them were broken roads, cars, buildings anf many more damages. And there it was, a big elephant digimon stomping around and fighting the wrestler digimon.

"It's one of Vamdemon's digimon!" Agumon exclaimed.

"It's Mammon!" Koushiro informed everyone as he continue to type in his laptop. "A Perfect level Digimon who has enormous ancient power. His special attacks are Tusk Strikes, where he fires his two tusk, and Tundra Breath, which releases a cold blast from his nose."

"Mammon got the advantage here. Taichi can't beat him like this!" Sora said in concern and was about to go to Taichi but was stopped as a police car paused right in front of everyone.

"You kids! It's dangerous here! Find shelter!" One of the police warned them through a megaphone. The police officer reaches down for his walkie talkie and contacted the station. "Hello? Hello!? I request some urgent backup! Hello!? That's weird..." But all he recieved was a static.

Suddenly, Taichi came flying down and landed on the hood of the police car roughly, causing everyone, especially the police inside it, to gasp and flinch.

"Taichi, you can't defeat Mammon! You're one level away from him!" Koushiro warned him.

Though it seems like his words were completely ignored by his friend as Ichimon just growled at Mammon with his fist tightly clenched.

"W-what is tha--AAAHH!" The police man screams and hurriedly escapes from his car before he was caught in it as Taichi lifted it up effortlessly and threw it at Mammon.

"Get out of here kids!" The man yelled out before running away.

"What are you doing!? You almost killed him!" Yamato shouted, but Taichi just walked pass him.

The ground shook violently as Taichi buried his hand in the concrete ground and released a powerful flame towards Mammon, who just easily killed the fire by blowing it off with Tundra Breath.

"Hey, Taichi! Are you even listening!?" Yamato called him but it only fell on deaf ears.

Everyone froze when Taichi shot them a deadly glare. He didn't say anything but snarl at them so dangerously. Before anyone could even make a move, Taichi's attention returns to Mammon as the elephant digimon stomped the ground as a threat to him.

He gave Mammon a fierce roar in return then launches himself up in the sky and aimed at Mammon. "Grand Flame!"

The elephant digimon wailed in pain as the fire spreads througout his fur.

"How is he able to hurt Mammon?" Koushiro asked in shock as he watch the elephant digimon stumble upon the telephone booth and a bus, completely destroying it in the process.

"More importantly, why isn't he listening to us?" Jou asked in concern.

Mammon grabbed Taichi with his trunk then threw him across the street. "Tundra Breath!" Adding his special attack, he managed to blow Taichi further away.

"Taichi!" Everyone shouted in distress.

Agumon gritted his teeth in frustration as he watch his partner get trampled by Mammon over and over again. "If I could just evolve...Taichi..."

"I'll go help him!" Tsunomon volunteered and jumped down from Yamato's arms.

"You're still worn out, Tsunomon! You can't fight yet!" Yamato told him as he grab Tsunomon.

"I'll go!" Piyomon flew up a couple meters off the ground before getting engulf with the familiar light. "Piyomon, evolve! Birdramon!"

The giant bird digimon tackled Mammon off of Taichi, sending the enemy digimon a few meters away from them. "Are you okay, Ichimon?" All she got was a growl from him.

Takeru stepped up, averting his eyes between Birdramon and Mammon. "Monsters! Two monsters!" He exclaimed with wide eyes.

"What are you talking about, Takeru?" Jou stared at the young boy in confusion.

After hearing what his brother just said, something clicked in Yamati's mind. "That's it! I remember now! A long time ago, Takeru insisted that he saw monsters but mom scolded him!" Yamato's gaze reached the ground as he frown. "That's why I couldn't say anything."

"When did this happen?" Koushiro asked him curiously.

"The same time as the bombing." Yamato lifted his head up and watched the fight occur right before him.

Hearing a loud rumbling sound, Birdramon flew up with Taichi on her feet as Mammon fired some of his tusks at them. "That's--AAHHH!!" Birdramon screeched in pain, causing her to lose balance in the air and hit multiple buildings.

On her feet, Taichi scratched her over and over again and bites down her flesh. "Wh-what are y-you doing?" Birdramon's vision blurred as Taichi climbed up to her head and tightened his grip, causing his claws to sink down into her painfully. Screaming out in pure pain, Birdramon tried to shake the digimon off of her, doing anything she could think of just to ease the pain.

Flames bursts out of Birdramon's body out of instinct, but it didn't faze Taichi, instead he absorbed it while biting down into Birdramon's neck. The bird digimon was confused and hurt, she didn't know what to do to protect herself from the rampaging Ichimon on her back. Eventually, she gave up and devolved back into Pyocomon.

Setting his hand ablaze from the newly absorbed power he got, Taichi brutally threw the unconscious digimon into the concrete ground and punched her on his way down, causing the entire pavement to broke apart from the powerful force.

"PYOCOMON!!!" Sora cried out and hurriedly ran towards her digimon.

Yamato tackled her down before she could even reach the unconscious digimon and kept her down without harming her. "Sora, wait!"

"Let me go!!! Please just let me go!!!" She flails around to attempt to escape the boy's grasp, tears now spilling out of her sad eyes.

"It's too dangerous!" Koushiro yelled out in distress while staring at the slowly moving back on his laptop screen. "I don't know what's happening but there's definitely something wrong with Taichi! Get away from him! Now!"

Koushiro's words immediately sinks in Sora's mind, she shook her head to snap herself out of her reckless trance and stood up on her feet. Before they could even run back, a ferocious growl was heard right behind them. Turning around reluctantly, a hostile looking Taichi stood tall with his claws and teeth dangerously bared in the open as flames danced around his body.

"Taichi..." Sora's gaze reached his friend's eyes, and was shock to see it pitch black instead of his usual orange ones. She couldn't feel anything from him but anger and bloodlust. "P-please stop..."

"Watch out!" Sora was suddenly pulled down by Yamato as one of Mammon's tusk successfully hit Taichi, yet he didn't flinch.

Standing up, Sora and Yamato quickly got up on their feet and hurriedly retreated back to the others as Taichi got distracted and hammered down the enemy digimon on its head. Koushiro and Jou pulled them both into the corner where they could temporarily take cover. Sora quickly looks around for her friend. "Where's--"

"It's okay. She's safe." Mimi turns around and showed her an unconscious Pyocomon in her arms.

Sora trembled and gently took her digimon from her friend and sat down, tears falls onto Pyocomon's dirty face. "Oh, Pyocomon..."

Roaring in full aggression, Taichi's whole body combusted with flames as he dropped down on his hands and feet. "Flame Booster." He muttered coldly.

The ground broke apart as he launches himself at Mammon and tackled him up in the air. After reaching a certain amount of height, Taichi dropped the digimon on the bridge, causing it to split it half and crumble into little specs of rocks.

"Grand Flame."

Mammon wailed in pain as the giant flames completely ate him up and tried blowing a few breaths but failed as the smoke blocked his airways. He was still standing, still wanting to fight back. Unfortunately, Taichi appeared from the flames while glaring at the digimon with full emptiness in his eyes.

Ichimon grabbed Mammon by his ears roughly and made him look at his face. "Pyro Claws."

Mammon wailed once more as Taichi's ablazed claws sinked into his neck, he flailed around to try and escape the merciless Ichimon but unfortunately his soul immediately left his battered body and and disappeared into data. Standing up on his hind legs, Taichi threw his head back and let out a prolonged roar.

"T-that was brutal..." Koushiro stared at the celebrating digimon in horror. Everyone was shaken, especially Taichi's partner, Agumon.

The dinosaur digimon was left frozen in his spot, shivering as he eyed his partner out of terror. This is definitely not his partner. The real Taichi is not like that, he saw how he normally fight as a digimon back when he witnessed his fight with Tailmon. Even as a human, he would never be as cruel as this one. Taichi didn't just killed him, he also made the digimon suffer, as if he's toying with him the whole time, and worse of all, Piyomon got involved in it.

Taichi lowered his gaze as he breaths out a few flames here and there. Then he snap back at the others with a menacing growl, causing them to tense and back away slowly.

 ** _'Kill them! Kill the Chosen Children!'_** The voice told him eagerly.

"Kill...the Chosen C-Children..." He repeated. Crouching down on all fours, he prowled towards them, teeth baring wider than normal.

Everyone took a step back everytime Taichi gets closer to them. The digimon went in front to protect their defenceless partners from the savage beast, who is their friend. "Taichi, snap out of it!" Agumon yelled at him, yet it fell on deaf ears. "What's wrong with you? Answer me, Taichi!"

The boy didn't listen and gotten more closer and closer until they were cornered to the collapsed cars and buses. Everyone squirmed in tightly in between the cars, all scared yet still have hope to bring him back to his senses no matter what. His hands combusted with flames, hair standing up to make himself look more threatening towards them.

"Don't make me do this, Taichi." Agumon pleaded and didn't dare to take a step back. His clawed hands clenched tightly into fist, but his pleading eyes betrayed that gesture.

Taichi loomed over him, dark eyes empty yet you could feel the anger and blood lust just by looking at it. The orange dinosaur looks up to him and didn't move, instead he went closer to him.

"Whatever is wrong, I'm sure you can get over this. You're stronger than this, Taichi." An unforgettable memory of him turning into SkullGreymon flashed in his mind. Yeah, it's like the same situation but the opposite. Agumon knew it was just an accident and Taichi didn't mean to be so tough on him, so right now, standing before him, his partner must be feeling the same way he did when he evolved into that skull digimon.

Taichi roared at him as a threat as flames dangerously swirled and danced around him. Still, Agumon didn't move. The orange dinosaur could hear everyone calling for his name, he decided to block them out and face the big digimon, courage filling up his entire being. "I'm not gonna let you go on like this! Baby Flame!" 

Agumon hated it. He hated that he's attacking his friend. Though he could see that Ichimon was unfazed by his futile attempts of causing damage but this is the least he could do. He couldn't evolve without his partner.

The other digimon stared at each other momentarily before nodding and joining Agumon by his side.

"Bubbles!"

"Air Shot!"

"Poison Ivy!"

"Marching Fishes!'

They simultaneously attacked him, yet Taichi was still unfazed, everyone was supporting Agumon on whatever he's planning, but truthfully there was no plan at all. Agumon is just doing anything he can to make his partner snap out of this unusual chaotic nature of his. "Taichi...please..."

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

_**Taichi just stared down at the small shadows shooting at him, looking at them in annoyance and frustration. His gaze returns back to the figures in the corner, each of them giving him a sinister smile. They were only shadows, dark creatures trying to get rid of him, but he wasn't gonna let that happen.** _

_**He set his entire body ablaze, making the flames more bigger, and swiped his arms at the small creatures before him, causing them to stumble back and dodge it.** _

_**'What's wrong?' The creature grinned ear to ear.** _

_**'Is that all you got?' The other teased.** _

_**The boy angrily snarled at them, his fiery orange eyes glinting with irritation. Clenching his fist, he punched down on the ground and buried his hand in it. "GRAND FLAME!"** _

_**He gave it all he got and let the extra power he got drain into his attack. The ground cracked and flames suddenly emerged out of the ground. He managed to hit some of the creatures but some of them evaded it easily and went back to the figures from the corner, as if they're protecting them.** _

_**Taichi panted profusely. He's exhausted, and just wanted to rest. The extra boost he got from that thing that grabbed him in the air was starting to fade, and so is his vision. As Ichimon, he has every advantage on small digimons and others that are the same level as him, but looking at the situation now, he couldn't even bring down these little pesky creatures.** _

_**A small gasp escaped his mouth as he saw someone right in front of him after the smoke cleared out. It was the same figure who stepped up to him bravely and even tried attacking him despite it not being able to hurt him.** _

_**"What do you want from me?" He snarled at the small creature.** _

_**The dark creature stared at him intently and smirked. "I see that you are at your limit."** _

_**"So? I can still take whatever you throw at me!" Taichi inhaled and gotten himself ready to breath out some flames to roast the small creature, but as he exhaled all that came out was smoke, causing him to cough.** _

_**Then he heard it laugh at him. It made him growl in annoyance. His body was reaching its limits, he's too exhausted to even make a simple punch. "Damn it..."** _

_**His ears twitched at the sound of someone coming closer to him. He lifted his head up only to see the dark figure staring at his drained body. "The world you once live in will be back to the way it originally was. Not only the human world, but also the Digital World! All of it will be back to zero!"** _

_**"If you think I'll let you do that then you're the stupid one here." Taichi groaned and fell on his knees, vision starting to fade. "I'm not going down that easily if that's what you're thinking!"** _

_**The creature chuckled darkly then went closer to his ears. "But you're so easy to manipulate." It whispered, making the boy shiver down his spine.** _

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Agumon leaned away from his partner, then his eyes widen when he saw Ichimon changed expression into a more confused one rather than being angry. The adult digimon is on his knees, seemingly tired after releasing a powerful blow to them.

"Taichi, I'm not going anywhere, you hear me?" The orange digimon carefully placed his clawed hand onto Taichi's shoulder. "You have to snap out of it! Those instincts are getting the best of you!"

Then a hand suddenly was placed on his. Agumon glanced to his side and saw Takeru and Patamon, his eyes shimmering with hope. There were shouts of protest coming from Yamato but young boy's attention were focused on Taichi. The digimon nodded to him then returned his gaze back at the whimpering Taichi. "We're staying here."

The digimon boy heaved a breath and shook his head wildly. He seems to be in a lot of pain. His teeth bared in the open as he put both hands on his head.

"Come on, Taichi." Koushiro muttered under his breath, staring at his laptop screen that shows a green bar that's merely full but slowly increasing bit by bit.

His dark eyes snapped open then quickly swiped his claws at the two in front of him. Takeru was unharmed, Agumon however got a long gash on his arm.

"Agumon!"

The younger boy hurriedly went to the digimon's side to aid him. The wound wasn't bleeding but still needed immediate treatment. Hearing a confused snarl right above him, Takeru saw his friend's bewildered face. It looks like Taichi's fighting to regain control of himself.

Suddenly, Takeru's Digivice started to glow brightly. The small boy took it then extended his hand out towards Taichi. "You helped me see the truth. Taichi..." A huge ray of light came out of the device and shot Patamon. The digimon's body glowed until he is nothing but a huge light, the familiar warm feeling surged into his entire being.

"Patamon, evolve! Angemon!"

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

_**Taichi blinked and shakes off the exhaustion in his eyes. His gaze fixated at one of the shadows lying on the ground. Panting, he forced himself to stand up, grunting as he pushes his body up with his numb arms.** _

_**"You still have fight in you?" The dark creature, who is on the ground, chuckled.** _

_**Taichi huffed out some flames after he successfully stood up, his entire body shaking due to the fatigue.** _ _**"Like I'm giving up that easily."** _

_**The shadow scoffed as it slowly rose on its feet, then went closer to the digimon boy. "We'll play again soon..." It grinned at him.** _

_**"Like I'd let yo-...!" Taichi covered his eyes with one arm as a huge light suddenly exploded right in front of him. He slightly lowered his arm to peak at the creature, but when he did...it was slowly fading away and standing on the shadow's place is Agumon.** _

_**His eyes widen is horror when the saw his digimon's wounded state, and that scratch on Agumon's arm was similar to what the shadow has when he attacked it. "N-no...D-did I-"** _

_**He cut himself off when he saw Takeru, holding out his digivice towards him, calling out to him. "...chi...ai...Taic..." He could barely hear it, it was mumbled.** _

_**Taichi then suddenly felt a soothing feeling in his body, as if it was calling him and telling him to close his eyes and relax. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw multiple lights, he didn't know where it came from but all he knows is it was very calming.  
** _

_**"Heaven's Touch!" He heard a familiar voice call out.  
** _

_**He dropped on his knees as he felt his mind and surroundings get clearer, more brighter and full of color.** _

_**"Taichi..."** _

_**His gaze lazily turned to his digimon, and tried to reach out for him. But he was so tired, he just wanted to rest.** _

_**"Agu...mon..."  
** _

_**"We're here, Taichi..." Angemon's voice rang in his head.  
** _

_**Finally closing his eyes, everything turned black.** _

_**••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••** _

Taichi blinked as he groaned. His whole body feels so sore. He could move his fingers but it was numb, he could vaguely feel his limbs.

"I think he's awake!"

"Taichi! Are you alright?"

His ears twitch and turned to the direction of the source of the sound. Slowly opening his eyes, he finally realized that he's lying on the grass under a tree, faint sirens of the police and other emergency vehicles can be heard from the other side of the building.

Taichi groaned and tried sitting up, but flinched when pain suddenly erupted from his muscles. Then a hand was suddenly placed on his chest and carefully pushed him down.

"Just lie down, Taichi. You're still hurt." A soft voice told him.

The boy slowly raised his head up and saw Sora and the others staring at him. "W-what happened? Where am I?" He asked as he placed a hand on his head, feeling a headache storming in.

"Well, Mammon is gone thanks to you. We're at the park, it's isolated so there should be no problem of being seen here." Yamato explained to him, not bothering to turn to look at the confused digimon boy on the ground. The blonde somewhat got that cold look in his eyes and the scent of frustration all around him, Taichi doesn't know why but it smells like it's directed to him.

 _'Did I do something wrong?'_ He thought before looking away from him. "M-me? But I don't remember fighting any digimon besides those shadow things." Taichi told them, earning a bewildered look from his friends.

"Shadow things?" Mimi asked.

The boy slowly nodded his head then scratched his head, only to stop when he notice his hands are paws. He hummed questionably. "Must've forgotten to turn it on." He muttered under his breath.

"You must be having a nightmare while Ichimon fought Mammon." Sora guessed then placed his hands on his hips.

"It's possible." Koushiro glance at his laptop that shows Taichi's data. "Ichimon is all about fighting after all. His instincts must be getting the best of you." He said while turning his attention to Taichi.

The boy wasn't listening to their conversation, however. His gaze was fixated towards the black smoke coming from the other side of the building. His brows furrowed when he remembers what he saw back then.

The dark creatures and unknown place he is in. The place was familiar to him though, it was like he was in the same location when he had a nightmare back in the Digital World. That time when he painfully turned into an extinct digimon.

Taichi shuddered at the unbearable feeling of that memory. He didn't want to experience that again.

"Hello? Earth to Taichi!"

The digimon boy blinked when he saw someone waving a hand in front of him.

"Are you alright?" Sora stared at him in concern.

"Oh, uh...yeah!" He gave her a toothy grin to reassure her. "I was just thinking." Then his ears suddenly perked up when he realized something. "Where's Agumon?"

"Here!" A familiar voice called out behind him. "Sorry for the wait. We were just scouting the area if there's any evil digimons around." Agumon walked up to his partner, the other digimons following behind. 

"Agumon?" The boy stared at his digimon's body, checking if there's a huge wound on his arms. Oddly enough, he found none.

"Don't run off like that ever again, Taichi."

Taichi just stared at him and carefully returned the hug. He didn't know what his digimon was talking about, all he knows is that he's suddenly fighting those shadow creatures as Ichimon. Heck, he doesn't even remember evolving, and it is making him worry a lot. "Y-you're not hurt?" He finally asked.

"It's nothing to worry about." Agumon reassured him with a large grin. "Angemon patched us up when you were sleeping, so no biggie." 

"Ange...mon?"

He suddenly got tackled by Patamon and Takeru, who wrapped their arms around him gently. "Glad you're okay!" Takeru smiled warmly. Taichi was confused but he still returned the hug to not disappoint the young child and the digimon. The young boy held onto him for a few moments before finally letting go and sitting down right beside him.

The once human let out a long sigh. Well this is definitely gonna be a huge trouble if it happens again. His adult level was getting easy to take charge of, though there are still some times that those instincts would slip in but all in all if he's not careful enough, there was a lot of problem with that digimon.

Still, that nightmare was bothering him so much. There was an uneasy feeling inside him that he couldn't understand what and why he felt like that. But putting those inner problems aside, finding the eighth child is their top priority right now. It's probably better to lay low for a while until they defeat Vamdemon.

Groaning in pain, a flash of memory of him as Ichimon hurting Birdramon suddenly appeared in his mind. His hand shook, then slowly turns his head and saw the unconscious Pyocomon in Sora's caring arms. Taichi hitched a breath then immediately shut his eyes close and look away.

"The two digimons disappeared after the fight."

Taichi shakes his head and finally listens to what his friends are discussing.

"So that's why it was labeled a terrorist attack." Jou stated, moving his hands up to his chin and made a thinking pose.

"I've been wondering about this for a long time now." Koushiro said, furrowing his brows as he ask, "Out of all those children at camp, why were we the only ones who were chosen? But now I've finally figured out a clue to solving that mystery."

"The incident from four years ago." Mimi pointed out.

"Yes!" Koushiro's gaze averted to Taichi, making sure that the boy is attentive. "All of us are linked by the fact that we have already met the Digimon four years ago!"

"Then that must also be the same for the eighth child!" Yamato told him as he cross his arms. 

"There is no doubt about it!" The Child of Knowledge nodded. "The eighth child too must've witnessed that event!"

Everyone's attention fell onto Jou as the older boy walked up to them. "But maybe Vamdemon's already found them! If the eighth child saw the incident then the child must live in Hikarigaoka, right?" He said in a distress tone.

"That's not true." Motimon muttered. "Since Mammon was wandering around here alone, the others must still be scattered throughout this place and searching for the eighth child!"

Taichi stared at the small baby digimon, fear in his entire being got washed down and was replaced with confidence and courage. Grunting, he slowly stood up and used the tree to aid him while Agumon helps him up by his side. "He's right..." He let out a couple of breaths before talking again. "We will find them faster than those guys! The Eighth Chosen Child! One of Us!"


End file.
